The Other Side
by NobleMETA
Summary: Once she arrived at the school, she was back to her usual smile and friendly demeanor, not letting anyone know about what was really going on inside of her head. That was something she very much liked keeping under wraps, so no one else knew what was really going on, and that was just the way she liked it. -Victory Rose AU mostly told from Pyrrha's side. Photo credit to the artist.
1. The Way Things Are

**AN: Normally this would be at the end, but for now I'm having this up here. Got this idea recently and I decided to run with it, but I changed things up a bit. I decided to write a pairing that I've gotten into more recently that doesn't get much attention. So hopefully it turns out great.  
**

 **AS A WARNING, THIS STORY MAY (meaning that it most likely will at some points) CONTAIN SENSITIVE TOPICS! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING! **

**If you don't want to read some things which may or may not cause triggers, then just be aware that this story will have moments in most of the chapters. I wouldn't put this here if I felt it didn't need it, but it does so be aware of that, ok?**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this!**

* * *

 _*Riiiiiiiiing*_

Pyrrha sighed as she closed her textbook at the signal that class was over. Her last class of the day was now over and she started to make her way out of the school and to her home. A smile graced her face as she walked past everyone in the hallways, much like she usually had on when she was in school and around her friends. It was moments like these, where Pyrrha say the friendly faces of everyone, that made her feel great.

To say that Pyrrha was a vastly popular girl was an understatement. Just about everyone in the school liked her to some degree, and most of the time, no one said anything bad about her, at least to her face. She was one of the star players on the school softball team, as well as the class president of her grade. That itself said enough about how much Pyrrha was liked among her peers.

It also helped that Pyrrha had a very friendly appearance to her. She was tall yes, but it didn't do anything to deter others from approaching her. She sported long crimson red hair that was usually kept up in a ponytail and a headband, and she often wore jeans and a nice shirt to school, only deviating every so often when she felt like mixing things up, or had some event going on that she needed to dress up for.

"Hey there Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha turned towards the sound of the voice that called out to her, which turned out to be her friend Yang Xiao Long. The two of them had been friends for a long time, as was Yang's younger sister Ruby. To see her close friend put an even bigger smile on Pyrrha's face.

"Oh hello Yang, how are you doing?" Pyrrha replied in return.

 _"Useless and pathetic, that's what you are!_ _"_

The sudden thought that appeared in Pyrrha's head surprised her internally, though she didn't let her surprise reach the surface. It wasn't the first time that she had thoughts of things that were said before, she had gotten used to keeping herself from letting the thoughts reach anywhere past her mind.

"I'm doing alright, but man, Oobleck's lectures really bore me," Yang said.

"I'm pretty sure it could be worse for you though," Pyrrha mentioned. As she walked through the halls, more and more people said hello to her or waved to her as she walked by.

"True, but hey, at least it's almost the weekend."

"That it is," Pyrrha reached her locker and started to open it up. "Alright, we'll I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Sure thing!" Yang answered, giving Pyrrha a pat on the back. Then she turned and made her way out of the building.

Pyrrha returned her attention to her locker, her mind overflowing with thoughts that would trouble most people.

 _" 'You little whore' 'I wish you were dead' 'My daughter Pyrrha, the pathetic little slut!' "_

"Pyrrha?"

A second voice surprised Pyrrha a little more than usual, but when she turned to see who it was, her heart started to soar. Her close friend Ruby Rose was standing next to her.

"Hey sorry Ruby, didn't see you there at first," Pyrrha replied. "What's up?"

"Not much, did you see Yang go by?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, I actually just saw her a minute ago, why?"

"Darn it, did she start to head out the door?"

"That's what I'm thinking," Pyrrha replied as she finished grabbing her things from the locker and closing it. "I'll walk out with you since I'm guessing you're heading that way anyway."

"Thanks Pyrrha," Ruby said.

As the two of them walked out of the school, they talked about how classes went for each other. The entire time they did, Pyrrha didn't have a single negative thought cross her mind at all. That was one of the benefits of being around Ruby, her abundance of positivity just soared through Pyrrha and helped her overcome the terrible things that had been said to her throughout her life.

It was one of the many reasons why Pyrrha was in love with Ruby.

By the time they got outside, Pyrrha was on the verge of laughing uncontrollably. She knew that Ruby was a funny person, and on many occasions was treated to a wonderful set of laughs. The two of them approached Yang's car, neither of them wanting the conversation to end.

"Well, I guess this is my stop," Ruby said.

"Yeah, I guess so," Pyrrha replied. "I'll see you tomorrow Ruby."

"Yep, have a good evening Pyrrha!" Ruby exclaimed as she climbed into her sister's car.

With that, Pyrrha turned around to begin her own trek back to her home. She was one of the only people who were within walking distance of the school, though she probably would've had to walk home even if she wasn't.

The long walk gave Pyrrha time to think about a lot of things, one of the most important being her home life. It wasn't something she shared with anyone for good reasons, in her own words, her home life sucked. The smile she had from her conversation with Ruby started to fade, leaving behind a familiar feeling of dread overtaking her. Pyrrha didn't ever look forward to going home after school.

Pyrrha happened to be the only child of an abusive mother and an alcoholic father. Her mother would often yell at her over something menial and pointless, frustrated that she had to deal with a husband who was drinking by the time he made it back home from work. Often times if Pyrrha was seen by her mother, it would result in a verbal berating at Pyrrha's expense, though it did get physical on a few occasions. Her mother called her almost every name under the sun, without remorse, so Pyrrha harbored some very intense hatred for her mother.

Her father was a different story though, and she had a more complex relationship with him. Pyrrha's father may have be an alcoholic, but he still cares for Pyrrha and would show affection for her on occasion. None the less, Pyrrha still resented him because of his alcoholic tendencies. He never made it to one of her softball games, he didn't act like a father normally would, and despite the knowledge that he cared, it strained his relationship with Pyrrha to an almost irreparable point. Out of her parents, Pyrrha liked her father more than her mother, for obvious reason.

About a half an hour later, Pyrrha arrived at her home. ' _Home sweet hellhole,_ ' She thought to herself as she walked through the gate to their front yard, if you could call it that. The house she lived in looked really run down and most people wouldn't expect her to be the one living in it. But she makes due with what she is given, even if she doesn't have much to go off of. The front lawn had junk and scrap of all kinds littering around in random places, left where they were for years at a time ever since Pyrrha was younger.

Once she walked through the front door, she walked straight to the refrigerator and grabbed enough food to last her through the night, as well as one of the beers that her father kept in there. Her father had enough alcohol that he wouldn't notice one bottle of beer go missing every so often, or at least once a day. Taking a look around the house, it wasn't much better than the outside was. Papers scattered across the tables, junk piled up in random places, and a thick layer of dust coated most of the furniture.

Pyrrha grabbed a plate from the cabinet and ran it under the sink, only to have the water coming out of it tinted a light brown color.

"Note to self, fix the damn water main this weekend when mom and dad are at work," Pyrrha said to herself as she thought of how long it was going to take to fix that. It was moments like that where Pyrrha was glad that she kept a supply of water bottles in her room, along with other things to keep herself from having to deal with her parents.

Taking the plate in one hand and the food she grabbed in the other, Pyrrha walked through her house towards her room. She had to walk up a flight of stairs to reach her room, and was grateful that her room was the only room on her floor besides closets and the guest bedroom that no one uses. Once she reached her room, she opened the door and felt an immediate rush of relief overcome her. She took the food that she grabbed and threw most of it into the mini-fridge that she kept in her room _,_ then took one of the bottles of water she kept and walked it over to the bathroom with the plate she brought up with her as well.

Once she reached the bathroom, it was a simple wipe down of the plate with the water from the bottle before she returned to her room. In comparison to the rest of the house, her room was probably the diamond within the rough that was called her home. The room looked clean and fresh compared to the rest of the place, but Pyrrha wasn't one to clean up often. She just happened to actually clean up one a week when her room needed it.

Sitting down at her desk, Pyrrha opened up the fridge to pull out some of the cold cuts she grabbed from earlier, as well as a couple of slices of lettuce and tomato and used it to make a sandwich. With her after school snack in hand she reached into her bag to pull out the textbooks she got from school so that she could get her homework done now. She had some peace and quiet with her parents gone, and she needed to take advantage of it while she had the chance to do so. Who knows how long it would be until her parents got home and her mother started to yell at her father for being drunk, or her for one reason or another. Her mother always seemed to yell any chance she got, so these quiet moments were a godsend to Pyrrha.

She didn't know how long had passed since she started working on her homework, but before she knew it, there was a knock on the door to her room.

"Come in," She said, hoping it wasn't her mother.

Much to her relief, she saw the familiar thick mustache of her father peek through the entrance to her room. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but there seems to be something wrong with the water-"

"I already know dad," Pyrrha interrupted. "I noticed when I got home from school. Don't worry I'll take care of it this weekend while you and mom are at work."

"You don't have to do that," Her father argued. Pyrrha noticed him come further into the room and she saw the bottle of beer in his hand, halfway empty already. "I'll take care of it when I get the chance."

"It's just easier if I do it dad," Pyrrha retorted. She wanted to tell him it was because she didn't trust him to actually go and get it done, but she had enough respect and care for him to not hurt him too badly. She knew he cared after all, and she didn't want to end up like her mother. "You're busy and I don't think anyone will want to wait until you have a free moment with work to get it done. If I do it, then it can get done sooner."

Her father looked like he wanted to argue, but there was something in his eyes that held him back. "Yeah, I guess you're right," He said, standing behind Pyrrha and kissing the top of her head. "Don't hesitate to call me if you need help though."

"I will dad," Pyrrha said, eager to get back to her homework, which she was almost done with. That being said, her father decided to take that moment to leave and return to whatever it was that he was doing before he came up to talk with her.

Pyrrha was so close to finishing her homework after her father came up to talk with her about an hour prior. That was when she heard the front door open again and a familiar voice echo through the halls of her home. The shrill cry of her mother yelling to her father about his drinking already started up. In that moment, Pyrrha decided that now was the best time to open up that bottle of beer that she grabbed earlier and enjoy it's numbing effects, what little effect it actually had though.

That's how it usually was for Pyrrha each night, she would stay up in her room and avoid leaving unless it was absolutely necessary. Her parents were usually arguing about one thing or another, and when she stepped out it usually meant that she had a higher chance of getting caught in the middle, or having the attention pushed on her for something she supposedly did. All throughout the night she heard her mother yelling, her father's slurred responses, and the beer she had did pretty much nothing to help her except lower her desire to leave her room. She would eventually fall asleep at night, only to wake up the next day and do everything all over again.

When the morning did come to her that next day, she woke up with a slight headache, nothing unnatural, but it was her own doing after all. One thing Pyrrha found out early on, was that no matter how much she had to drink, a little or a lot, she would always wake up with a dull headache. Better when she had a lot to drink, but really bad when it was nothing more than a shot's worth of alcohol.

Slipping out of the bed, Pyrrha changed into a set of clean clothes and walked downstairs. Usually her parents were awake well after she left for school, their days starting much later than hers did. Once she was downstairs, she opened up the fridge and grabbed her breakfast, as well as enough stuff to make a sandwich for her father so he could have lunch at work that day. It wasn't much, but Pyrrha considered it her way of showing that she cared for him, much like he cared for her. Once she was done, she wrote his name on the sandwich and put it back into the fridge so that it didn't go bad, then she turned and walked out the door.

Normally Pyrrha would be glad that she was out of the house, but something about that day just wasn't going well for her. She didn't seem to be in a very good mood, which wasn't natural for her. She let the thought slip from her mind as she walked the streets towards school so that she could enjoy a reprieve from the chaos that was her home life.

Once she arrived at the school, she was back to her usual smile and friendly demeanor, not letting anyone know about what was really going on inside of her head. That was something she very much liked keeping under wraps, so no one else knew what was really going on, and that was just the way she liked it.

* * *

 **AN: Note, this fic will update on a bi-weekly schedule. I don't know how long it'll be, but for now it's planned on being somewhat short (somewhere between the length of Best of the Best and Of Roses and Dragons) though don't hold me to it ok?**

 **-Noble**


	2. This and That

**AN: Normally, I would wait until Sunday to release this, but given that we got confirmation that RWBY VOLUME 3 IS BEING RELEASED ON OCTOBER 24TH ON THE ROOSTERTEETH WEBSITE!, then I decided that I needed to say something about how awesome this is and how extremely excited I am to get back to watching RWBY again! Holy crap the hype is beyond real right now, and my day has just gotten so much better!**

 **Anyway, here's the latest chapter, and as an added bonus, I'll still release a chapter on Sunday, so you get double the chapters within a few days time!**

 ***begins to run around in circles screaming like a banshee due to vol. 3 release date***

* * *

Pyrrha sat up at her desk in her room, her headphones in to drown out the sounds of her parents in yet another argument. It helped when she wanted to work on other stuff since the music she would be listening to was enough to mostly draw her into her own little world where she could focus on the work she was doing. She was thankful for the music, it seemed like this argument was one of the worst that her parents were having in a long time.

She chose to ignore it in favor of the writing she was doing. Pyrrha's dream was to become a professional writer, and she was currently working on a long novel series that had taken the better part of a few years to reach the point where it was at. She worked hard on it, devoting much of her free time to writing, plotting out details for her story, revising portions that she previously worked on, and then doing it all over again.

It wasn't something that she was working on chronologically, some events she worked on before others, simply because she had decided to plot out a general idea of where the story was going to go, and knew where the parts she worked on would fit into the story.

 _"How do we find your stealth drive?" Pyrrha's Ghost asked over the comm relay._

 _"There's a bridge from the tower to the ship," Cayde replied as the door to the elevator opened up. "Took me days to get it working and it's a little unstable so watch your step."_

 _Pyrrha walked over to where Cayde was referring to, only to look out and see that the bridge in question, wasn't where it should be, and that the distance down to the ground was much higher than she had originally thought it was. 'A little unstable? It's no wonder you sent me here in your stead, you don't want to get yourself killed if you fall,' she thought to herself and shook her head._

 _"Cayde, someone moved the bridge, destroyed the controls," Her ghost spoke up again._

 _"Yeah, that's the Fallen," Cayde surmised. "Probably trying to keep the Taken off their backs. See if you can reroute the power."_

 _Pyrrha just shook her head and looked towards her ghost, hoping that he would come up with a plan that they could go with._

 _"Any ideas?" Pyrrha asked._

 _"Well, there's still an active feed moving through those pipes up overhead," He replied. "Pyrrha, if you find the source I can patch the circuit."_

 _"Just gotta go up huh."_

 _"That would be the case."_

 _Pyrrha turned around and walked around the elevator until she saw a flight of stairs that went upwards. It wouldn't get her up all the way, but it was a start, and the closer to the top she got, the better off she would be._

 _"Once you get the bridge working, my stash is in the ball on top of the colony ship," Cayde mentioned._

 _Pyrrha took that moment to speak with Cayde herself this time. "We're still waiting for details on this plan of yours, Cayde."_

 _"Yeah, uh give me a second, Pyrrha," Cayde quickly spit out before getting off the comm. It didn't do anything to help Pyrrha's confidence with this plan of his._

Pyrrha was so into the details of what she was writing, she nearly missed her phone go off. Briefly diverting her attention, she noticed that it was Ruby trying to call her. Pyrrha stopped the music that was playing and pulled the headphones off of her ears before answering Ruby's call.

"Hey Ruby, can you give me a second?" Pyrrha asked as she walked towards her window.

"Um, sure," Ruby replied.

Once Pyrrha heard Ruby's reply, she opened up her window and climbed out of it. Her window was right above the back porch roof and when she was on the phone, often times she was outside sitting on the roof so she could have some privacy.

"Sorry about that, it's kinda loud in my house right now," Pyrrha said. Technically it was true, but she wasn't going to include the details on why it's loud in the first place.

"Oh, well anyway, Yang and I were gonna be going out to the movies tomorrow after school with the gang and wanted to see if you were coming with us," Ruby said. "I'm sure you would have a great time with it, plus we're getting food afterwards."

Pyrrha had to take a moment to think about what it was that she was just asked. Ruby asked her to go out to the movies with all of their friends. Most people would go and ask their parents about it, but given Pyrrha's family situation, she wasn't entirely inclined to mention this to them at all. Truth be told, her parents probably wouldn't care either way, nor would they notice that she was out of the house.

"Sure, I'll join you guys," Pyrrha said, feeling more than eager to get out of her house. "What's the movie?"

"Yang says that a theatre local to us is playing a movie called Straight Outta Compton, or something like that," Ruby replied.

In an instant, Pyrrha knew that Ruby probably wasn't old enough to see the movie. "You do know that movie is extremely vulgar right?"

"Yang tells me it's a movie about the N.W.A., and that got me pretty excited to see it," Ruby replied.

"Yeah but-" The fact that Ruby knew about who the N.W.A. was became Pyrrha's next point of curiosity. "Wait, how do you know about the N.W.A.?"

"Yang's played their music before when we drive to school, I've heard enough of their music to get that it isn't something kids can't watch."

Pyrrha was having a really hard time understanding both Ruby and Yang's logic regarding the music selection, and their defense of why they listen to it together. Regardless, Pyrrha decided it was best if she didn't stress out over it. "Anyway, let Yang know that I'll be joining you guys tomorrow."

"Alright, sounds great!" Ruby replied. "I gotta go, see you tomorrow Pyrrha!"

"See ya, Ruby," Pyrrha answered before climbing back into the window and returning to the work that was in front of her.

* * *

By the time Pyrrha woke up the next day, she knew that it wasn't going to end well for her. For starters, she woke up much later than she usually did, and that meant she had to rush to get out the door. More than likely, she would have to skip out on a few things she normally did in the mornings just so she could get out within a reasonable amount of time.

Because of that, Pyrrha decided to run to school instead of walk like she normally would. Grabbing her normal jogging outfit, she threw it on, and threw a separate change of clothes into her bag so that she could change out of them when she was at the school. Once she was changed, she quickly moved down to the kitchen and grabbed some food for her to have at lunch, before making a hastily made sandwich for her father. Once she was done, she pulled out a sticky note so she could leave her father a message.

-Sorry that it's not as good as usual, was late getting out the door today. -Pyrrha-

She then stuck the note onto the plate the sandwich was on and then threw it into the fridge. By the time she closed the fridge, she noticed her mother was walking into the kitchen.

"Young lady do you have any idea how early it is right now?" Her mother chastised.

"Sorry, but I'm running late right now, else I would've been quieter," Pyrrha answered.

"I don't give a shit if you're late or not, you woke me up earlier than I normally would," Her mother rebuked. "And what is that that you're wearing right now? Running out to meet your John before going to school?"

At that, Pyrrha decided her time staying there that moment was up. "Leaving mom."

Not even waiting to hear an answer in return, Pyrrha walked out the door, slammed it shut and then began to jog down the pathway to the road before jogging down the road to the school itself. All the while, she could hear her mother shouting at her in the background.

Stopping at an intersection once she was far enough away from her house, Pyrrha did a quick check to make sure she had everything she needed, before pulling her music out and throwing it on so she could drown out the world around her. When she originally thought that her day wasn't going to go well, she just knew something like that would happen, and low and behold, her feelings certainly didn't disappoint.

Despite how early she got up, Pyrrha still made it to the school with enough time to get changed before class started. Her jog had helped her calm down tremendously, but she could still feel herself being in a not-natural-for-Pyrrha mood today. ' _Just gotta get through the day, and hopefully no one really eggs me on today, because I'm really not in the mood for anything right now._ '

As she was making her way across the parking lot, she noticed that Yang and Ruby had climbed out of their car. She promptly jogged over to the two of them so that she could say hello to the sisters.

"Morning guys," Pyrrha said as she approached Yang's car so she could grab their attention.

"Morning Pyrrha," Ruby replied, giving Pyrrha a hug, like she normally did. "Jeez, did you run here?"

Pyrrha's face turned red when she heard Ruby's remark. "I'm not that sweaty, am I?"

"No, but you do look like you were just jogging, especially with how red your face is right now," Yang cut in.

' _So this is how she's gonna be today? Great, just what I needed,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself. She knew Yang well enough by now to know she had a few different moods that she kept towards. Either she was her normal cheery and fun self, frustrated and in a fighting mood, or she was an extreme tease, flirt, jokester, etc. Clearly she was in the last mood right now, and Pyrrha knew it the moment Yang opened her mouth.

"Yeah, we'll I was running late today, so I figured a jog would help me get here on time," Pyrrha said. Surprising to everyone, Pyrrha included, she opened the door to the back seat and climbed in. "You two, stand guard." Pyrrha pointed at both Ruby and Yang, who knew instantly what was going on.

Yang and Ruby stood on either side of the car, blocking the window from the view of people passing by. Pyrrha swiftly pulled her spare clothes out of the bag, and laid them out on the seat next to her. Once she was ready, she pulled her shirt off and was about to put her clean one on.

"Nice tits Pyrrha," Yang remarked, startling Pyrrha and forcing the girl to cover her chest while her face went extremely red. "You think we're the same size now, or are yours still a little smaller than mine?"

Pyrrha didn't notice, but Ruby's face was as red as Pyrrha's was. Pyrrha shot Yang a glare she rarely ever used, one that Yang knew meant that she needed to shut up. Pyrrha rarely got mad, so when she did, it was certainly noticeable, and more often than not, Yang was probably the one person who saw her mad the most, and caused it on more than one occasion.

"Right, didn't realize you were in a bad mood," Yang replied. "Sorry for embarrassing you."

Knowing that Yang was telling the truth, Pyrrha sighed before continuing to get changed. "It's fine, Yang, I would just appreciate it if you laid off with teasing me today, alright?"

"Sure," Yang answered.

A few minutes later, Pyrrha was ready to head into the school. "Alright, let's get this day over with," Pyrrha mentioned. "I'm ready to enjoy whatever it is you have planned tonight." Before she could think of anything else, Pyrrha remembered something that Ruby told her last night. "By the way, Yang, you are a terrible sister."

"W-wha…what did I do?" Yang sputtered.

"You know Ruby's too young to be listening to N.W.A. and yet I hear that you're playing it for her on your drives to school?"

"She wanted to listen to them though," Yang answered. "I was just indulging her ever abundant curiosity."

With Pyrrha's interrogation deflected towards Ruby, the girl in question suddenly felt herself shrink under Pyrrha's gaze.

"Ruby, this type of music, with the stuff that they say in it, you're too young to be listening to this," Pyrrha said. "Obviously I can't stop you from listening to them, but please don't use the vocabulary that they use, or get any stupid ideas in your head from this, ok?"

"I promise," Ruby replied.

With that, Pyrrha gave a faint smile, and pulled Ruby into an one-armed hug. "Glad to hear it. Anyway, I gotta get to class, I'll see you two later today." Waving goodbye, Pyrrha turned away from them and walked to where her next class was going to be.

' _This is gonna be a long day._ '

* * *

 **AN: Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed reading this, and remember, tune in this Sunday for the latest chapter in the story thus far!**


	3. The Calm Before

By the time school was over, Pyrrha felt drained. She was surprisingly tired and felt ready to take a quick nap if she were given the chance to do so. Seeing as how she would be going to the movies with Ruby and the rest of the gang, sleep probably wasn't going to be much of an option, unless she got really lucky and Ruby decided to let her sleep instead of chatting with her the entire time up until the movie.

Not that she minded when Ruby did that, it's just Pyrrha didn't want to come off as rude if she fell asleep during the middle of the conversation.

Regardless, as Pyrrha walked over to her locker, the younger girl in question came up to her, the older sister following in tow. "Hey, you ready for a really fun time?" Ruby asked once she was next to Pyrrha.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Pyrrha said, though she yawned immediately afterwards.

"Someone sounds tired," Yang mentioned.

"And someone has no reason to be such a brute."

All three of the girls turned towards the newcomer to the conversation. They knew who it was before they saw her, seeing as how everyone recognized the voice of one Weiss Schnee.

Most people wouldn't have any idea why Weiss was friends with any of the friends she has, outside of Pyrrha. Fortunately, Pyrrha and Ruby knew why she was friends with Yang at least. Pyrrha had the misfortune of walking in on the two of them as they were making out in the middle of Ruby's living room. Ruby apparently knew from beforehand, but it still surprised her that the two of them were together. In public though, no one could tell that they were together, but in private, their real feelings come to life.

"Nothing wrong with teasing people," Yang retorted.

"No, teasing people is what you did to Jaune earlier today, as well as just about everyone else under the sun," Weiss shot back. "Which you have done none of to Pyrrha at all today. To say that you were teasing her with that is a load of bull and you know it."

Before Yang could answer back, Pyrrha, who had an evil idea, decided to interject. "Eh, I was first in line for the teasing today, she teased me this morning about my chest."

"What?!"

Pyrrha was barely able to hold back her laughter at Weiss' tiny little slip. Yang just rubbed the back of her neck with her hand trying to find a way out of this without Weiss killing her. "What, she decided to get changed in my car all of a sudden."

Weiss looked over to Pyrrha, who had decided revenge on Yang was fulfilled. "That part is true, but you teased me about the size of my chest."

"What, in the exact moment that happened, your shirt was off, and I happened to notice your tits, with a bra on I might add, were looking close to the same size as mine," Yang pleaded, only to receive another unhappy glare from Pyrrha. "Right, shutting up now."

"You need to teach me that," Weiss commented. "It seems to work really well at getting people to shut up when I need them to."

"It helps that I don't really get mad to often," Pyrrha said. "In fact that's probably why it works so well, because people know that I'm actually mad when I do that, and that me mad isn't natural."

Weiss simply shrugged as Pyrrha grabbed the last of her belongings from the locker. Once she was finished, the group then walked out to Yang's car, where the rest of the gang was meeting with them. Pyrrha was certainly looking forward to spending the day with her friends, it was a nice change of pace from the usual stuff she went through at home.

By the time they got out to Yang's car, the four of them noticed that their friends were all waiting for them. Hanging around or leaning on Yang's car, was none other than Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Sun Wukong, Neptune Vasilas, and Penny Ironwood. Pyrrha perked up when she saw her friends, and somehow she knew that things were going to turn out great.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Ruby asked.

"I'm wonderful, thank you for asking!" Penny said in response.

Pyrrha just shook her head before looking towards Nora. "How's Ren doing?"

"He's doing fine," Nora replied. "Apparently he found out that your cousin is doing the same program as him, so they've gotten the chance to become friends."

Pyrrha wasn't surprised to hear about that. When she found out that her cousin Blake was going to study in France for a few months, Pyrrha felt really excited for her. To hear that Ren was also doing the exact same thing was a surprise, but then she told Ren to try and find Blake while they were out there. Turns out he took her advice to heart.

"Well that's great," Pyrrha replied. "I'll have to ask Blake what she thinks of France when I get the chance."

"Alright, what are we standing around here for?" Yang suddenly proclaimed. "Let's get this party on the road!"

Pyrrha was certainly glad to hear that, as was everyone else among their friends.

"Shotgun!"

Weiss' sudden call of shotgun had certainly surprised everyone, but only Ruby pouted about it. None the less, she climbed into the backseat of Yang's car with Pyrrha, and perked up almost immediately.

As they began to drive towards the movie, Ruby was having a really animated conversation with Pyrrha. Or she would be, had Pyrrha not been struck with a sudden bout of drowsiness. Despite the fact that Pyrrha wanted nothing more than to keep being involved in the conversation, she just couldn't find it within her power to stay awake.

"Hey Ruby." Yang called up to pull her sister out of the conversation for a minute.

"What's up, Yang?"

"You said the movie was airing at 4:30 right?"

"Yeah, I made sure of that this morning," Ruby replied. Once she looked back over to Pyrrha, she then noticed that the girl beside her was asleep. "Pyrrha?"

"Let her sleep, Ruby," Yang said, having noticed Pyrrha grow more and more tired by the minute. "It looks like she needs a quick nap. We'll wake her when we get to the movies ok?"

"Alright," Ruby replied. ' _She looks so peaceful right now._ '

* * *

By the time they reached the theatre, Ruby nudged Pyrrha awake, who in turn apologized profusely for falling asleep on their conversation. Ruby paid no mind to it and said that it wasn't a big deal.

The movie itself went well, though Pyrrha wasn't paying attention to it at all. Her mind was on other things and in other places. During the entirety of the movie she seemed to focus solely on her relationship with Ruby and how everything came to be where it was at that moment. Even though she wasn't in a relationship with Ruby, Pyrrha wished that she was, but knew it wasn't a possibility.

Remembering back to the time that she first realized her love for Ruby, Pyrrha felt a smile slide across her face. Pyrrha had been going through an infinitely harder day than most. Her parents had gotten into a huge fight the night before, and at one point she got involved when her mother had slapped her harshly across the face. Pyrrha remembered crying almost the entire night beforehand, and nearly being late to school the next morning.

Despite feeling absolutely terrible, full of anxiety and an abundance of other emotions, Pyrrha put on her usual happy face so that no one would question that something was wrong. It was a terrible thing to do, but Pyrrha had grown so used to doing it by then that it was simply second nature. During that day, it seemed as though everyone was asking Pyrrha to help them with one thing or another, and it was starting to take its toll on Pyrrha's mind. She felt like she couldn't bear much more without snapping at someone and asking to be left alone for once.

That was until Ruby showed up.

Pyrrha didn't know what gave it away, but somehow, the dark haired girl seemed to sense that Pyrrha just needed someone to help her out, instead of being the one asked to help with stuff. Ruby asked Pyrrha if she needed anything, offered to help do some of the work with Pyrrha, even tried to give the girl a back rub. Despite that, it was simply the fact that Ruby was there for Pyrrha when she needed it, both at that moment in time and at other moments, which left such a powerful emotion coursing through Pyrrha's veins.

"So Pyrrha, what did you think of the movie?"

The sudden question caught Pyrrha off guard as she wasn't expecting it. In fact, she had still been zoning out well after the movie, and didn't even realize that they were getting close to the restaurant where they were gonna catch dinner.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I guess I wasn't really paying attention," Pyrrha admitted. "What was your question again?"

Pyrrha wasn't one to shy away from admitting when something was her fault, all except when it came to anything regarding her home life whatsoever. Regardless, she could see that everyone was surprised by her admitting that she wasn't paying attention.

"I asked what you thought of the movie," Sun said.

"Oh, well, it was good?"

"You don't sound so sure about that," Neptune interjected.

"Hehe, sorry, I've just had a lot on my mind today is all," Pyrrha replied.

"Well then we'll just have to go see it again!" Nora proclaimed. "Obviously not now, but sometime soon when Pyrrha's brain is working right."

Leaving it at that, the gang all went to enjoy their dinner. Pyrrha made a conscious effort to pay attention to what was going on so that she didn't feel like she was causing any problems, but still, she found it easier to do than she thought. They all enjoyed the time together and by the time dinner was over, they were laughing like a pack of wild hyenas.

Once they all went their separate ways, Yang dropped Pyrrha off at an intersection near where her house was, per Pyrrha's request. Despite protests from Ruby and Yang about how they were worried about something happening to Pyrrha, the red head refused to give in. She proclaimed that she's done the route so often that she isn't worried about it. Eventually, Yang caved and agreed to let Pyrrha off where she asked to be.

Pyrrha was smiling the entire rest of the walk back to her house, something she didn't experience too often. Chalking it up to how much of a good time she spent with all of her friends, especially Ruby, Pyrrha didn't stop smiling until she reached the front door of her home.

Now came the real trouble for Pyrrha, getting up to her room without drawing any attention towards herself. She swiftly opened the door and closed it just as quickly, and quietly, as she had opened it. Going through the kitchen and towards the stairwell leading to her room was easy, and she didn't notice anyone around. That gave her the first clue that something was going on, as well as an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

By the time she reached the stairs, she noticed that it was unnaturally quiet considering what time it was. Normally her mother would be yelling at her father, but the fact that it was dead quiet was unsettling. Pyrrha decided that the best course of action would to just get up to her room and shut herself in for the night to avoid whatever was going on. She realized that her father wasn't home, meaning that her mother would have her eyes set on the only person left in the house.

Reaching the top of the stairwell, Pyrrha realized her efforts were all for naught. There, standing in front of her doorway, was her mother, a furious look crossing her face. Pyrrha knew right then and there, that she was in a world of trouble.

"Do you have any idea how pissed off I am with you?"

"What for?" Pyrrha asked, no idea why her mom would be mad with her.

"First of all, you just walk off while I'm in the middle of speaking to you, then you go gallivanting off who knows where all night, and yet you don't have the decency or respect to tell me about any of this, you ungrateful bitch!"

' _Oh no,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself as her mother went on with unwarranted rage.

"How dare you disrespect me by walking away while I'm speaking to you, how dare you go off and run around doing whatever you damn well feel like doing, do you have any idea just how rude and disrespectful that is? I am your mother and you will do what I tell you, do you understand me?"

Pyrrha just chose to remain silent, feet firmly planted at the top of the stairs, ready to bolt should anything come to pass.

"Oh what, your gonna just stay silent and hope that I'll ignore you? Well guess what, I'm not letting this slide any more!"

Pyrrha barely had any time to react to what was happening. Her mother approached her harboring ill intent, and in a second, Pyrrha became the victim of that intent.

Pyrrha's mother approached her quickly, and then with a swift shove, forced Pyrrha to fall backwards down the stairs. Pyrrha didn't have enough time to steady herself, and she easily lost balance before toppling down the stairs. Her body impacted hard against the stairs as she fell, but once she reached the bottom, her left shoulder slammed into the wall, sending a wave of pain coursing all throughout Pyrrha's body.

Pyrrha was barely able to hold back the scream once she felt her body impact the wall. Her arm, her shoulder, they were in so much pain, the pain she was experiencing the worst she had ever felt in her entire life. She knew, something was damaged badly in her shoulder. Pyrrha didn't have a chance to react and realize what was going on, because her mother had come down the stairs and was berating her even more, throwing insults at Pyrrha and kicking at her now injured side.

All the while, Pyrrha was helpless to stop any of this from happening. All she could do was ride it out until it was over and hope that she would be alright in the end. Eventually it did stop, but not before Pyrrha felt the pain she originally felt from her fall almost double since her shoulder first impacted the wall. After a few minutes of silence by herself, Pyrrha realized that it was finally over, that the beating she received was done and that she was left alone.

Pyrrha eventually picked herself up, and walked up the stairs to her room. The entire left side of her torso was in pain and she couldn't even move her left arm at all. In that short walk up to her room, Pyrrha had made up her mind about one thing. She was done, she wasn't going to go through this anymore.

Once she reached her room, she grabbed a duffle bag and threw some of her clothes into it, followed by her laptop, a few other things she felt were necessary, a few snacks and some water, and she opened up the window in her room. Pyrrha locked the door and started to climb out the window. Getting out was tough since she only had one arm that was working, but she eventually managed to worm her way out of the window and over to the ledge. The first thing she did was lower her bag down towards the ground as much as possible, before letting it drop to the ground. Afterwards she lowered herself off the roof and dropped down as well.

She had to hold back a scream as the jolt from her impact sent a fresh wave of pain searing through her body. After a moment, she picked herself back up and grabbed her bag. With nothing stopping her, Pyrrha walked towards the sidewalk and eventually started to make her way down the street. With tears staining her face, Pyrrha knew one very important thing. She no longer had a place to call home.

* * *

 **AN: Holy crap this was a hard chapter to write, not gonna lie. The ending was probably one of the hardest things to write from this story, but not the only one that I had a hard time writing. Unfortunately this chapter and probably the next chapter or two after that are going to be some of the lowest (in terms of how Pyrrha' feels) points in the story.**

 **Side point: Freezerburn is a side thing, but it does have some relevance to events that happen later on during the story, so don't expect much from that, alright?**

 **Anyway, as I said on wednesday, I promised you guys that I would publish this today like I was already planning to before I heard about Vol. 3, and I'm glad I was able to stick with it.**

 **Btw thanks for giving this story a chance, and hopefully it get's more attention from here. If you liked this, feel free to follow/fave/review, and spread this story around. Thanks for reading!**


	4. The Storm

When Pyrrha had originally left her old home, it was around midnight. She walked down streets in the dead of night, her duffle bag slung over her right shoulder since her left was in such pain. Occasionally a car would pass by, but no one bothered to stop and ask her what was going on, nor did she even want anyone to do that. The one thing working in Pyrrha's favor was that she knew exactly where she was going. There was one place where she felt she would be safe from all of the troubles that were going to bother her.

It was with pure dumb luck that she didn't get rained on during her walk over to her destination. While it wouldn't have surprised Pyrrha if it were to rain, she wouldn't have welcomed it one bit, knowing just how much more uncomfortable and distraught it would make her. It was with a heavy heart and sheer determination to get away from her home that she made it.

It was three in the morning by the time she finished walking to her destination, the house of Ruby Rose standing right in front of her.

In all of the time Pyrrha had known Ruby and Yang, she never once expected to have to sneak into their home in the middle of the night. Most people wouldn't even think of trying to do something like this, especially just so they could get away from home. Not only was Pyrrha going to break into their home, technically speaking, but she was also going to stay there for the night and just fall asleep in the spare bedroom. Any sane person wouldn't even think of doing something like this, and the fact that Ruby and Yang's father and uncle were police meant that even insane people wouldn't try this.

At that moment though, Pyrrha didn't care, nor was she concerned. Her mind was cracked by pain, desperation and despair, all thoughts about what would happen just gone, replaced by a desire to feel safe.

Fortunately for Pyrrha, she knew of a way to get in without having to cause many problems. Yang had told her about the spare key to the cellar that they had so she could get in when the house was locked and no one was inside to let anyone in. She even showed Pyrrha where it was when Yang got locked out of her house the one day and needed to get inside.

Dropping her duffle bag by the cellar door, Pyrrha walked over to where the key rested and pulled it out of its hiding spot. Returning to the lock, she opened the door, only then paying any attention to her surroundings and keeping the noise she created down in an effort not to wake anyone up. With her entrance into the home opened, Pyrrha reached down to pick up her duffle and threw it over her shoulder again before climbing all the way down to the cellar.

Now that she was inside, Pyrrha knew just where she was, even in the dark. She knew exactly where she was going to hole up until the morning, and that was in the spare bedroom that Ruby and Yang's father had in the basement right across the room where she was. Quietly moving across the room, Pyrrha opened up the door to the spare room and closed it behind her.

Only then did she finally feel safe, only then did she feel as if this nightmare was starting to let up. She dropped her duffle bag at the foot of the bed before slipping onto the bed and curling up with her knees held closely to her chest and her left arm laid still overtop of her body. Only then did she let her guard down and finally fall asleep, not even bothering to kick off her shoes or throw the sheets over her.

* * *

It was about 5 in the morning when someone finally woke up within the Xiao Long-Rose household. Up at the time he normally would be, Taiyang Xiao Long was slowly preparing to begin his day of work. Usually he was up by 5, and out the door right after Yang and Ruby woke up around 6, which he used to shower and get dressed for his day as a police officer.

Today was different than most days though. As he walked into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee, he heard a strange noise, something that sounded like muffled whimpers. That set him on high alert faster than anything coffee could have done. Quickly identifying where the sound was coming from, he found it strange that it was coming from the basement of all places.

Instead of going down to investigate immediately, he quietly retreated upstairs to fetch his gun that he kept for emergencies, this moment constituting the necessity to have one just in case it turned out to be an actual emergency. Before going down to investigate, he snuck a peak into Ruby and Yang's rooms to make sure that they were asleep, in case it turned out to be one of them down there. When he saw both of the peacefully sleeping bodies laying in their beds, he quickly sprung into action and moved to investigate the noise.

Following the noise down to the spare bedroom, it surprised him to hear what sounded like a young girl crying. He opened the door and what he saw only added to his confusion. Taiyang saw that Yang's best friend, one of Ruby's closest friends as well, Pyrrha Nikos, was curled up in the bed, no covers on, shaking as if she were in the middle of a nightmare. For a split second Taiyang was shocked that he were to see her in this state.

Right after his initial shock, his natural instincts as a father had kicked in, and he rushed over to Pyrrha's side. He grasped her shoulder in an effort to shake her awake, but in his haste he didn't notice the condition of Pyrrha's arm, and he grasped the shoulder that Pyrrha had injured hours before. His effort to help her out of her nightmare only succeeded in sending a fresh wave of pain scorching through her that forced her awake in a near scream. The look of grimace on Pyrrha's face sent guilt through Taiyang, and it was only then that he noticed some discoloration in her arm.

Quickly turning on a light so he could see better, he got a good look at just how badly she looked. Pyrrha's shirt covered her shoulder, but her arm was severely bruised all the way down past her elbow, an unhealthy shade of purple replacing the normal color of her skin on her arm. Even on the other side of her shirt, right nearby her collarbone, he could see the clear discoloration.

It gave him a healthy picture of what happened to her, but didn't explain why she was here and not in a hospital, or at home with her parents.

After Pyrrha stopped writhing in pain, she finally looked up and saw Yang's father looking right back at her. her mind started to panic and she froze, fear evident in her eyes. She knew that she was caught and only now did she think about what it was that she had done by coming here. It took a few seconds for either of them to say something, but in the end Taiyang finally found the words to say.

"What happened?"

Hearing Taiyang speak freed Pyrrha from her paralysis, but it sent her into an even deeper mindset of fear. "I'm sorry Mr. Xiao Long, please don't hurt me."

Instead of hearing the strong and confident Pyrrha Nikos, he realized that the girl in front of her was scared. Something had to have happened to her, someone hurt her and now she was bearing with the aftermath. "Pyrrha," Taiyang said as he slowly approached Pyrrha's bed. "I'm not going to hurt you. I would never do anything like that to you, ok?" By the time he reached the side of the bed, Pyrrha was slowly shying away from him. "Do you need me to call your parents?"

Just hearing about her parents forced Pyrrha to try and shield herself even harder, and more visibly too. Without any words being said, Taiyang connected the dots and realized the horrible truth of the situation. "Oh no," He whispered to himself as he formulated what to do within his head.

Taking a deep breath, Taiyang started to formulate a plan in his head. First and foremost, he needed to help calm Pyrrha down, only then could he try to get her to explain what had happened. Gently, he placed his hand on her side, rubbing it in an effort to comfort her. When she tensed up, he said that everything was going to be alright. Then he started to hum some song that he used to do for Yang and Ruby when they were younger.

After a few minutes, he noticed that she was starting to calm down. Her breathing was still ragged and he could tell that she was going through hell, but he would see to it that she get the care and comfort that she deserved.

"You feeling better now?" Taiyang was in full parent mode by this point.

Pyrrha nodded softly, but just enough for Taiyang to notice. "Mhm," She hummed while nodding.

"You want to talk about what happened?" Taiyang was prepared for Pyrrha to shut herself in and avoid talking about it, and it wouldn't surprise him if that was what happened exactly.

Much to his surprise though, she nodded again, albeit softer than the prior one. It was a step in the right direction, but now Taiyang needed to make sure that everything was done right, part of his police training kicking in and reminding him that there are certain procedures that need to be followed.

"Ok," Taiyang said, acknowledging Pyrrha's response. "Before we get to that, I need to take care of a few things. As a police officer I need to make sure that we do this right so that nothing goes wrong for you. Mostly what I want to do right now is make sure that you're comfortable and in a place mentally and physically where you feel safe and comfortable and can explain what happened in a clear way."

"Ok," Pyrrha whimpered. Her voice had lost all of the usual bright and confident energy that she had before, and it drove Taiyang to make a greater attempt at fixing this.

Gently, Taiyang helped Pyrrha sit up and relax as much as she could. "Alright, first thing I need to do is make a few phone calls. One is to my job to inform them that I won't be arriving in the office today. The second is going to be someone in Child Protective Services that I know really well. If what I'm thinking is correct, then they will most likely need to be involved for your safety."

When he noticed Pyrrha start to shrink a bit at hearing how CPS was going to be involved, Taiyang went back to reassuring her first. "Don't worry, Pyrrha, it's going to be ok. The person I'm calling is someone I trust with my life, and in fact you have met him before." Pyrrha slowly looked at him, wondering what he meant by that. "I'm gonna be calling my brother-in-law, Ruby and Yang's uncle. Does that help, knowing who it is?" When Pyrrha nodded again, Taiyang gently rubbed her arm, taking care to avoid the one that was injured as much as possible.

"Before I go, do you want anything to help you feel better?" Taiyang asked.

Pyrrha did have one question that came out, though it was a surprise to Taiyang what the question was. "Are you going to be taking me to the police station?"

It took a second for Taiyang to realize that maybe she wasn't entirely comfortable with going to a police station to be interviewed about what happened. "Is there anyplace specific that you want to go instead? If it helps you feel much more comfortable, I'll do everything in my power to ensure that it happens."

Taiyang saw Pyrrha close her eyes and look down, her whispers nearly missed were it not for the fact that it was very quiet in the house already. "The school."

That didn't seem to surprise Taiyang at all. If what he was thinking was true, then the school would likely be a place of comfort and safety, since she spent so much time there and it was a way for her to escape home. "I think I can do that," He replied, giving her a confident smile. "I'll be back soon. Why don't you get changed? I'm sure you would feel a lot better if you were wearing a fresh clean pair of clothes. Take your time though, I'm not in any rush right now."

"Ok," Pyrrha whispered, finally looking up and giving as much of a smile as she could. Even so, her smile had lost almost all of its brightness, the energy Pyrrha exuded being all but gone.

With that, Taiyang stood back up and walked out of the room. He assumed that Pyrrha would be getting changed and closed the door behind him. Now that he was out of the room, he could look back on what just happened and try to figure out what was going on. On the one hand, he knew that he had a job to do and ensure that Pyrrha received justice for the crimes committed against her, but that part of him was coupled with the father in him, who wanted nothing more than to see this little girl smile. Over the years, she had become something of a third daughter to him with how often she was around spending time with Yang and Ruby, seeing her like this tore him apart inside.

He returned to what he was doing soon afterwards, climbing back up the stairs and grabbing his cell phone. Taiyang knew what he was going to do with this time that he had. First he was going to call his boss and explain a bit of what was going on. Then he was going to call Qrow and talk with him about setting up at the school so that Pyrrha would feel comfortable, and then lastly, he needed to call the school headmaster, Ozpin, in order to set up the meeting, should he have the green light to do so.

Once he got a hold of his boss, he began to explain. "Hey chief, so I have a bit of a situation and I won't be making it into the office for work today."

"Oh, and why is that?" His boss asked.

"Let's just say that it involves someone I know getting hurt," Taiyang said, trying to not go into all the details in case Ruby or Yang woke up and heard what was going on. "I'm gonna have to talk with Qrow about this whole thing and go from there."

"I see." Everyone in the police department knew that Qrow was the local police's liaison with Child Protective Services in much of the state. Hearing that he needed to be involved set off enough bells in the chiefs head to give him a picture of what was possibly going on. "Do what you can and I'll punch you in starting now."

"Understood sir," Taiyang responded before hearing the phone hang up. Once he finished that first call, he immediately went to call up Qrow. Before he could though, he heard a door open up, and tired feet shuffling down the hallway to the living room. Immediately he saw Ruby rubbing her eyes as she yawned into a stretch.

By the time Ruby looked at her father, who was still in his sleepwear, she wondered what was going on. "I thought you had work today," She said, still feeling groggy from sleep.

"I do, but something came up and I have some things I need to do before I go in today sweetheart," Taiyang said as he kissed the top of her head. Seeing what was going on with Pyrrha had him going that extra step to making sure that his daughters knew that he loved them. "It's a little early for you to be getting up now isn't it?"

"Just woke up for some reason," Ruby replied. "Do you want to use the shower first?"

"You and Yang go on and use it," Taiyang answered. "I don't think I'll have the time to do so."

"Ok," Ruby said as she walked over to the bathroom and went to begin her shower. Once she was out of sight, Taiyang returned his attention towards his phone, and he went back to getting a hold of Qrow.

"Hey there, this is awfully early to be calling me," Qrow said once he picked up.

"Yeah I know but something came up and I need your help," Taiyang replied.

"Well, what kind of thing do you need help with? Did the grill break down again?"

"Work related."

It took a few seconds for Qrow to respond, but eventually he sighed, knowing just what that entailed. "Ah, shit." Taiyang knew that when he asked Qrow for help, it wouldn't be for pleasant reasons, but they had a job to do and they would get it done. "Ok, what do you need from me?"

"Is it possible for us to speak with the person at the high school where Ruby and Yang go to? The person involved said she would feel more comfortable there than in the station."

"I suppose it's possible," Qrow answered. "As long as proper authorities are there, that being you and me at least, and we handle things right, it shouldn't be a problem. You gonna call Ozpin about this or did you already do that?"

"Figured it would be better to see if we could even do that first before getting that set up," Taiyang said. "Given what I know, I don't think it'll be a problem for Ozpin to give us the ok."

"Alright, I'll swing by the station and pick up a portable recorder, then I'll meet you there," Qrow said.

"Sounds good, see you soon," Taiyang replied before hanging up to make one last phone call. It wasn't a surprise that Ozpin was up, that old man seemed to be available at almost any time.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Headmaster Ozpin, it's Taiyang Xiao Long."

"Ah, it has been a while, to what do I owe this pleasure? If it has to do with either Ruby or Yang, I can assure you that-"

"No, it's not about either of them," Taiyang interrupted. Normally he wouldn't interrupt Ozpin, but under the circumstances, it didn't matter. Hearing the shower stop, Taiyang walked towards the back of the house and out onto the porch before he continued. "Look, there's no easy way to say this, but something came up that you need to be made aware of."

"I'm listening," Ozpin said, he went into a more serious mode of thinking after hearing what Taiyang said.

"One of your students has just went through what I can only assume, given what I know right now, was a pretty terrifying and traumatic experience," Taiyang said, saying only the things that he needed to say. "They showed up at my home, injured and distraught and there may be something going on that needs to be handled with care. Now, the student has requested, for their comfort, that they go to the school so that they can give an account of what happened within a place they feel safe speaking in. I was hoping that you would allow me access to one of the secluded conference rooms so that we can do this."

"You're certainly playing things awfully vague right now Tai," Ozpin mentioned.

"I guess I am."

Sighing, Ozpin gave Taiyang his answer. "I'll arrange for the conference room in the office to be reserved for the day so you may conduct any business you need to in private. Is there anything else that you need?"

"I don't know how long it will be until I arrive, but in the meantime, Officer Qrow Branwen will also be there to partake in what is going on. Also, the school's nurse and the head guidance councilor should also be present, even if it isn't for the entirety of the day. At the same time, what kind of medical equipment do you have on site?"

"We have an x-ray machine, as well as a small MRI unit. Do you believe that we will need to use them?"

"I'm one hundred percent sure that we'll need to use them," Taiyang said without hesitation.

"Very well then, I'll contact the nurse and let him know to come in early so that we can start the equipment," Ozpin said. "I'll make my way in early so that I can meet up with you when you arrive."

"Thank you for doing this by the way," Taiyang mentioned. "It certainly helps with making sure everyone feels comfortable while we go through this."

"Anything to help someone in need," Ozpin replied before hanging up.

At that point, Taiyang went back to his room to get changed into more professional clothing. Afterwards he was gonna go check up on Pyrrha to make sure she was doing alright, and let her know that everything was ready to go and that they could leave whenever she wanted to.

Once he finished, he walked back to the basement and up to the spare bedroom. Since the door was still closed, he assumed that Pyrrha was either finished changing and just wanting to hide, or that she was still changing. Taiyang knocked softly on the door, just to be safe and not scare Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, it's me, Mr. Xiao Long," Taiyang said softly. "May I come in?"

Instead of hearing a response, Pyrrha slowly cracked open the door to see Taiyang standing there, giving her a reassuring smile. Only then did she fully open up the door to let him in. He saw that she had changed into something different, not even bothering to imagine just how difficult that must have been for her. He noticed that she wore a loose long sleeved shirt and had a scarf around her neck, most likely as an attempt to hide the bruises from the world. The way she looked now, you couldn't even tell that she was going through a walking nightmare, except for the sorrow wretched across her face.

"Whenever you're ready to go," Taiyang said. "I was able to get us access to the school since you said it would help you feel comfortable."

"Thanks," Pyrrha replied. Taiyang guessed that in the time between when he left and the time when he came back, Pyrrha found enough confidence to speak. "Can I ask one more thing before we go?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Could you not let Ruby or Yang find out about this?"

An odd request sure, but Taiyang could see why Pyrrha wanted to keep this under wraps. Ruby and Yang were probably her best friends, if they saw her like this then it would just cause them to worry, or try to help too much and make Pyrrha feel uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I guess I can do that," Taiyang said. "I take it that means you're ready to go?" Seeing Pyrrha nod, he thought of how to go from there. "Alright then, you know the doorway from the basement to the garage then? Take that to get to my car, I'll meet you there in a second, just gonna say bye to Rubes and Yang before we head out, ok?"

"Ok," Pyrrha said. Taiyang walked out of the spare bedroom, with Pyrrha following in tow and following his instructions. There were two entrances to the garage, one from near the front door, and one leading to the basement, meaning that Pyrrha wouldn't be noticed by anyone unless someone came through the door at the other end.

All the while, she waited, holding her arm as a dull throbbing engulfed it. She wanted this to end, but for some reason, she felt like this was just the beginning.

Eventually Taiyang appeared from the other door and the two of them climbed into his car. As they prepared to leave, Pyrrha laid her head back against the seat and simply stared out the window, watching the trees and sky pass by.

* * *

 **AN: Holy crap that was certainly a tremendous first episode of Volume 3! I'm super pumped for the rest of the volume now, you guys have no idea about who much I was practically bouncing in my seat over that episode.**

 **Anyway, you guys have certainly taken a major interest in this story and we're only into the fourth chapter right now! I figured that this story would do well, but seeing it grow for myself has been a surprise to say the least. Thank you guys for giving this a chance.**

 **I have a large portion of this story done, but I'm still working on writing it all out. But, I figured I should mention that there is a chance that this story becomes a once a week thing, instead of every two weeks! If that happens, I'll be sure to let you know about it beforehand.**

 **Thank you guys for reading this. Don't forget to follow/fave/review this chapter, and as always, I'll see you beautiful people next chapter!**


	5. Shattered

By the time Taiyang and Pyrrha had arrived at the school, the sun was starting to shine. It did nothing to help Pyrrha's mood though, as she still felt terrible. Pyrrha felt like she was running on auto pilot, subconsciously flowing through the motions needed to get into the school and ready to explain what was going on. The fact that she was in this position was enough to fill her with agony, the experience itself was even more terrorizing in her mind.

She followed Taiyang into the school and walked over to the office. With no one else in at the moment, Pyrrha felt relieved that no one outside of those who needed to would see her like this. Her natural instinct to shy away given the state she was in was ready to trigger at any moment, but it didn't look like she would have to make an effort to do so, since no one was around to see her.

Taiyang found the conference room in question and told Pyrrha to wait outside for a second before she was brought in. He wanted to be sure that only certain people were in there before bringing Pyrrha in. To his relief, he found that Qrow, Headmaster Ozpin, Ms. Goodwitch, who was the schools head guidance councilor, and the school nurse. Mr. Haywood, were the only ones in there at the time.

"Ah, there you are," Qrow spoke up first upon Taiyang's arrival. "Fashionably late as always."

"Just making sure that everyone was doing alright," Just then he walked out into the hallway to motion for Pyrrha to walk in.

Pyrrha felt her heart start to race. She was about to walk in front of people who would learn the truth about what she has been through, and it scared her. So when she froze up instead of moving into the room, it wasn't a surprise to Taiyang. What was a surprise, was Pyrrha feeling a gentle hand rest on her right shoulder, and Taiyang, who looked beyond concerned for her, working to help her calm down.

"I promise, I won't let anything bad happen to you, ok?" He asked. "Do you trust me?"

Once Pyrrha realized what his question was, she knew the answer right away, and that gave her the push she needed to move forward. She took a deep breath before nodding her head and following Taiyang into the conference room to meet with the people involved.

She saw people that she knew were reliable, who have proven that they can be trusted on more than one occasion. But even Pyrrha noticed all of the shocked expressions that seemed to slap themselves across the face.

"Miss Nikos?" Ozpin spoke first.

"Yes, this is part of the reason why I haven't been as revealing when we first spoke," Taiyang said. He then turned towards Pyrrha whom he saw was shying away and looking at the floor. "Ok, we can't have all of us in here right now. First things first, I think the nurse here should see what the physical damage to Pyrrha is, afterwards we can get statements. Lastly, we'll try to find ways to help her with recovering from this."

"I hate to sound really rude given the circumstances," Mr. Haywood said. "But there doesn't appear to be anything to look for at first glance. I don't discount that there is something wrong, but I would like to know what I need to look for, if that's alright by you."

Now that she was in this situation, Pyrrha started to respond more to what was going on. She knew that she had to talk about what happened, show them what the results were, but it was still hard for her to do. If it wasn't for Taiyang, she probably wouldn't even want to try anything.

Before Taiyang could respond, Pyrrha responded in her own way. She loosened the scarf around her neck before slipping her right arm through the sleeve of her shirt. With one motion, she pulled the shirt over her head and slid it gently down her left arm. The only thing that was covering her torso now was a spaghetti strap tank top and the bra underneath. Since Taiyang last saw it, the bruising had grown much worse than it already was at, and it appeared in a dark shade of purple down past her elbow, all around her shoulder, and around the area of her collarbone.

Seeing that nearly made Goodwitch sick because of how incredibly disastrous that looked. Qrow and Ozpin were shocked speechless and frozen, and even Taiyang had to take a step back since it had gotten worse than it was not two hours prior. Only the nurse made any sort of movement, springing into action at the first sight of the injury. "Qrow give me your jacket. Taiyang, do you think we should lead her to my office so that we can take a look at the exact damage there?"

Realizing that he was being asked a question, Taiyang spoke up. "So long as we keep this all under wraps and no one else notices that we're here, then we can. Besides, it's better that it happens there since all of the necessary medical equipment is there."

By that point, Qrow had removed his suit jacket and handed it to the nurse. He then walked up to Pyrrha but stops short of reaching her. "Pyrrha, I know you're probably scared right now of everything that is going on, but I need to take a look at those injuries you have on your shoulder," Mr. Haywood said, keeping a soothing and calm air around him all while he did. "Would you be willing to let me do that so I may help you feel better?"

Pyrrha, who still hadn't said two words since she left the house with Taiyang that morning, finally spoke up. "Ok."

"Alright, first thing I need to do is put this over you so that we can cover up your injuries while we head to my office right around the corner," Mr. Haywood said. "After that we'll get an x-ray set up to start looking at your shoulder. Does that sound alright by you Pyrrha?"

"Y-yeah, I guess," Pyrrha meekly replied. Pyrrha was scared of course, but she knew that she had to push through that fear so that this can end. With the jacket now placed over her shoulders, Pyrrha was escorted out of the conference room and towards the nurses office. Before they crossed the hallway, the nurse checked to make sure that no one was there since they were doing everything possible to keep this under wraps. Once he knew the coast was clear he gestured for Taiyang and Pyrrha to come into the office.

Once they were in, he opened up the door to a back room and brought Pyrrha and Taiyang inside. "Ok, first things first, just step right up here and we'll get an x-ray of that arm of yours to check for damages." Pyrrha shrugged Qrow's jacket off of her arms, then stepped where the nurse asked her to. She kept having to remind herself that everything that she was going through right now was for her benefit and these people were trying to help her. During the time that Mr. Haywood was taking care of the x-rays, Taiyang was taking a picture of Pyrrha's injuries himself so that it could be used as evidence to help her case, which he had mentioned to Pyrrha before they reached the school.

A few seconds later, she was given the ok to step down from the x-ray machine. "Alright, while we wait a few minutes for those to develop, I'm going to look into something else." The nurse put a couple of forms down on the counter and then walked over to Pyrrha. "Ok, I'm going to be completely honest with you, in order to fully diagnose your injury, I'm going to have to move your arm around. It's probably going to hurt somewhat, but I promise that I'm not trying to hurt you."

"And what exactly is this checking for?" Taiyang asked a bit more venomously than he should have been. "Why would you move her arm around when you can tell that it's going to hurt?"

"Well," Mr. Haywood started off, keeping calm despite the frustration from Taiyang directed towards him. "While the x-rays can tell us somethings, there's one thing that it won't be able to tell us. If I'm right, I'm I'm pretty much positive that I'm right, she may have a partially torn rotator cuff that needs to get looked. If it's really hard for her to move her arm in certain directions, then it'll give me definitive cause to take a look with the MRI system."

Taiyang wanted to retort but Pyrrha spoke up first. "Go ahead," Pyrrha said. "What do you need me to do?" Pyrrha's voice had slowly been starting to come back over time, though she sounded more and more hoarse as the day went on. Regardless, while everyone was trying to help Pyrrha in the real world, she had been battling hard in her mind so that she could open up and talk about what happened, try to become normal. This last night that she went through had been the tipping point she didn't realize that she had reached.

"All I need for you to do is let me move your arm and tell me when something hurts extremely bad," The nurse replied. "Don't try to bear through it, if it hurts tell me how bad it is, ok?" Once Pyrrha nodded, the nurse began to move the arm around. He started by moving Pyrrha's arm straight out to her side. To a point it was alright, just a dull throbbing, but then once it reached a certain height, she felt the pain shoot through her arm. At that first grimace, the nurse stopped and gently dropped her arm back to her side.

"How bad was it?"

"It was fine up until that point then it just hurt like hell and I couldn't move it," Pyrrha said. "Other than that it was just the same throbbing pain that has been going on this entire time."

Taiyang had to admit, the fact that Pyrrha was communicating was a relief. Hearing about the pain she was enduring, not so much. Still, he could do nothing but stand back and watch at the moment.

"Ok, let's try a different angle," The nurse said before repeating the test, moving Pyrrha's arm a different way this time. After a few more runs with that, the nurse then gently prodded at the area around her shoulder. Pyrrha felt the tension in her arm as each poke hurt thanks to the bruising.

After a few moments, he finished with that and jotted some notes down on the paperwork he brought out earlier. After that he ran over to check on the x-rays, make sure they were done. After a minute, he walked in with the x-rays in hand and asked Pyrrha and Taiyang to follow him over to the other side of the room.

"So, I got some good new and some bad news, which do you want first?" Mr. Haywood asked.

"Might as well get the bad news out of the way, alright?" Taiyang replied, with Pyrrha nodding in confirmation.

"Well, the bad news is that aside from the severe bruising all around your shoulder and down your arm, you have a partial tear in your rotator cuff, and a crack in your collarbone," He said. "The good news, is that the collarbone isn't fully broken and should heal up fine in about a month or two, though you should take it easy with the injury for another few weeks after that. Same with the rotator cuff, and the bruising should feel ready in a week or two. So, nothing permanent, but for the time being, you won't be doing much with that arm."

Pyrrha felt some relief come over her, her pain was only temporary, physically at least.

"Even better, you should be good to go for Softball season, though I wouldn't overdo it anytime soon," Mr. Haywood said to brighten the mood a bit.

"I'm glad to hear it." Pyrrha knew that he was trying to cheer her up, and while it was nice, she didn't know how much it actually helped in the moment.

"Alright then, I'll bring Pyrrha back over to the conference room so you can get all the necessary things together that she needs to help her recovery," Taiyang said before grabbing Qrow's jacket and placing it back over Pyrrha's shoulders. Before leading her out of the nurses office itself, he checked the halls to make sure that there was no one around that could spot Pyrrha before he led her towards the conference room.

By the time they got back to the conference room, only Qrow and Goodwitch remained in there. Ozpin must have gone back to his office by that point to work on paperwork of some sort. Regardless, Taiyang knew what came next, probably the hardest part of his job during any given case such as this; asking the one who had to go through this hell to retell the story for them in detail.

Pyrrha, to everyone's surprise, shrugged the jacket that she had been given off of her and with a feeble hand, returned it to the rightful owner. Qrow was surprised by the gesture, but took it as a good sign that everything was going to be alright for her. "Thank you," He said once the jacket was back in his hands. Pyrrha nodded slightly, before picking up the shirt that she was wearing earlier and put it on with only slight difficulty.

Taiyang would've offered to help her, but he didn't know how she would react to the offer. In the end, Pyrrha managed to cover herself up once again with the shirt and wrapped the scarf around her neck once more. With that taken care of, she waited for Taiyang to inform her of what to do. "Here, take a seat, Pyrrha." Taiyang pulled out a chair as he spoke and Pyrrha sat down, allowing Taiyang to push the chair in behind her.

"You doing alright, Pyrrha?" Qrow asked. He, alongside Taiyang, knew exactly what came next.

"I think so," Pyrrha replied quietly.

"I'm glad for that," Qrow said back. "Before we begin, I want to ask, are you gonna be ok with talking about this? You're gonna have to tell us about everything that you can, and it may be hard to talk about at times, so I just want to be sure that you're good to do so."

Pyrrha had to take a deep breath and think about if she was truly ready or not. For a single moment, she thought of what could happen, what her mom would try to do, and she started to clam up and think that it wasn't a smart idea. As soon as those ideas came about though, she had a memory pop into her head, something that she remembered Ruby say to her from before.

 _"You know, even if things are looking down for you right now, there are plenty of people who are willing to help you, who want to see you do well. You just gotta let them."_

That one thought of Ruby gave Pyrrha all the reassurance that she needed to get through this, even if it hurt to think about it. She needed to do this, so that things could only get better for her. "Yeah, I think I can do that," Pyrrha said, though her tone betrayed the bravado that she put on.

"Ok," Qrow took that as a sign to start. "Before we begin, I just want you to be aware that this conversation will be recorded as evidence that may be presented to a judge or jury. Anything you say should be the complete truth that way we can issue out proper justice." By that point, Qrow pressed the record button so that they could begin their conversation.

"Miss Nikos, could you tell me a bit of what it is that you've been dealing with from home?" Qrow asked.

After a few seconds of pause, Pyrrha began her testimony. "Well, it all started when I was about five years old I guess. One day my mother just became angry, vindictive, unwelcoming, even violent at times. She called me names, said rude things about me, insulted me, you name it."

"Well, what kind of things did she say about you?" Qrow asked. "You don't have to give me everything, but, just try to say as much as you can remember."

"Well, I've been called worthless, a slut, whore, bitch, pathetic and useless, just to name a few. She's told me that she wishes that I was dead, or that I was never even born," Pyrrha recanted.

Pyrrha could tell by the looks on Goodwitch and Qrow's faces that what she was telling them was appalling, that they were in complete shock at what it was that they had to hear about. "So, you have been going through this for roughly 12 years then. What changed exactly that made you want to leave?"

"Well, last night my mother got physical," Pyrrha said. "It wasn't the first time it got like this, but it was pretty bad last night." As she thought about what it was that she went through, it got harder for her to keep her composure strong. Her voice started to waver and she knew that she was going to start crying soon. "I don't know what had set her off, but she confronted me last night after I got home from spending time with my friends. She said some things that I don't remember right now, but almost immediately afterwards, she said that I wasn't allowed to remain silent, and that's when she pushed me down the stairs leading up to my room." By that point tears were in Pyrrha's eyes as she felt the pain start to build up again.

"We can stop and take a break if you need it," Qrow said, only to be immediately cut off.

"No, I'm done hiding from her," Pyrrha bursted out, surprising even herself with how boldly she proclaimed that. Maybe she was finally ready to take back her life from her mother and get the woman to stop towering over her, making her fearful of what she could do. "I need to do this."

"If you need to stop at any point just let us know, ok?" Qrow reminded Pyrrha.

"I know," Pyrrha said. "Once I was pushed down the stairs, my arm slammed into the wall, and it hurt so badly. I didn't even have time to process what was going on before she was standing overtop of me, kicking me right in the same side I hurt from the fall, cursing at me and calling me every single name under the sun. I blocked out the things she said because I just couldn't stand hearing them, my arm was in too much pain for me to even think about what was going on."

"So what did you do from there?"

"I ran, ran as far away as I could to a place where I felt safe," Pyrrha answered. "At first I just walked without any place in mind, but after a while, I guess my feel just carried me towards a friends house. Since her father is a police officer, it helped to make me feel safer."

"Where was your father during the entire time that this was going on?" Qrow asked.

"My father was probably out at a bar getting drunk, he's always getting drunk," Pyrrha said. "He hasn't done anything physically to me, but it hurt, seeing him always going to get drunk and leaving me to feel as though he didn't care. He missed so much of my life that I don't even know if he should be my father, all thanks to alcohol."

By that point in time, Qrow stopped the recording, he had heard enough and felt it was time to stop. "That should be all that I need to make the case," Qrow said. He started to pack up the stuff before turning to Pyrrha. "You doing ok?"

Pyrrha nodded a bit before giving Qrow a half effort smile. "It helped that you know Mr. Xiao Long."

"I'm just glad that I could help you out," Qrow said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Here, if you ever need anything from me, whether something is going on and you just need someone to talk to, or you need to report something happening with you in terms of this case, please, just let me know about it, ok?" He handed her the phone, his number available for her to see in case she needed anything from him.

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. Reaching out to grab her own phone, she put his number in, before returning the phone to him. She didn't even realize it before, but school had already started and was well into the day. She must have been talking for a lot longer than she had realized.

"Alright, well, I'm going to start working on the necessary paperwork and then bring it all back here for you to sign," Qrow said in response. "I'll be back in a little while." With that, Qrow walked out of the conference room, leaving Pyrrha with Taiyang and Goodwitch.

"Pyrrha, you must be hungry," Taiyang said. "Is there anything that you want to eat before we go on?"

"I'm not that hungry right now, maybe later," Pyrrha answered.

"Alright then, now Ms. Goodwitch here is gonna talk with you, see if there is any ways that she can help you move past this so that we can see you smile again," Taiyang said in response. "I need to speak with Ozpin about a few things so that should give the two of you enough time to speak privately with each other." With that, Taiyang took his leave so that the two ladies could speak in peace.

"Ok, well why don't we get started on what is going on with you mentally? I'm sure that this is a lot to take in so don't leave anything out," Goodwitch said as Taiyang closed the door behind him.

It was a short walk over to Professor Ozpin's office, but it gave Taiyang enough time to go through exactly what he needed to say. Before going inside, he knocked on the door hearing a response that gave him reason to step inside.

"How is she doing?" Ozpin asked once Taiyang closed the door behind him.

"She's doing better than she was this morning when I found her," Taiyang answered truthfully. "I can tell that she's scared about what could happen now that she's said something to us, but she's putting on a brave face. Who know's how long she's already had to do that before we were told about this."

Ozpin took his glasses off, letting them land on the desk in front of him. He then proceeded to rub his face with his hands, wondering where he missed the little details that could've ended this much sooner. "She's certainly good at keeping this a secret, that much I know."

"Yeah, fooled even Yang and Ruby, who've spent so much time with her, you figure they would've been told at some point or another," Taiyang replied. "Still, physically she will heal up after a while. Partial Collarbone fracture, partially torn rotator cuff, and some severe bruising, but the doc cheered her up by saying that she should be good to go for Softball season."

"If it helps her feel better, then that's all that we need in order to know we're doing something to help her," Ozpin said. "I'm guessing she's speaking with Glynda right now?"

"That she is," Taiyang answered. "But there's still one more thing that I want to speak with you about. Where do you think she is going to stay in the meantime. She can't go anywhere with her family in case they try something ridiculous, and I don't think putting her in a government shelter will do much to help her mentally. She needs some place that will treat her will respect, some place where she can feel as though she's at home."

"Perhaps she should stay with someone she considers a friend?" Ozpin inquired.

Pondering what Ozpin said, Taiyang had an idea. "Well, now that you think about it, that does give me an idea," He said. "Why doesn't she stay with me, Ruby and Yang? She get's along with them well, and being in the home of a police officer should help her feel safe in case her family tries to do anything they shouldn't. Plus, Yang and Ruby would make her feel welcome no matter what."

"If you think that you could pull something like that off then I would say that you should go for it," Ozpin concurred. "While you go take care of that, why don't you let me work on gathering all of the assignments that Pyrrha will have missed from class today so that she doesn't fall behind on the work."

"I'll go call Qrow and ask him about it," Taiyang said before walking out of the office and outside so he could get better cell signal. Once he did, he phoned Qrow so that he could tell him about his plan.

"What's up Tai, anything else come up that I should know about?" Qrow asked.

"Was wondering what you were thinking of doing for Pyrrha in terms of where she'd be staying until we get this all sorted out," Taiyang said.

"Why, do you have any ideas?"

"I was thinking that it would be best for her if she stay with me, Ruby and Yang," Taiyang suggested. "She know's all of us well, the girls would help her feel welcome and safe, plus it helps living in the home of a police officer, at least I would think that it would."

"Well, I'll clear it with my superiors, but I don't see why it would be a problem to set up," Qrow said. "What do you think Ruby and Yang will say about this though?"

"I'm sure we'll think of something," Taiyang said. "Just let me know when you got the go ahead to move forward with this, then I'll go and let Pyrrha know."

"Will do."

Soon afterwards, Taiyang returned to the office and walked over to the conference room, noticing that Mr. Haywood was waiting outside for him. "Goodwitch wouldn't let me in while she was speaking with Pyrrha, practically threw me out of the office for the sake of doctor patient confidentiality."

"Well, you know how Glynda can get Mr. Haywood," Taiyang said.

"Please, just call me Ryan," He replied. "It's easier this way. By the way, I have the pain meds and instructions that Pyrrha will need to take for her recovery." Ryan handed the bag and paperwork off to Taiyang before turning to his office. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my office in case someone comes in complaining about a cold."

Almost immediately afterwards, Taiyang got a call from Qrow, so he stepped outside to take it. "What's up?"

"Got the ok for you to take Pyrrha under your care," Qrow said. "I'm gonna make my way back with the paperwork once I get it from the office, but I wanted to at least give Pyrrha some good news as soon as possible."

"That's great Qrow, I'll go let her know," Taiyang said. "See you when you get here." Taiyang hung up and hurried back to the conference room. Along the way he ran into Ozpin and asked him to come over so he could hear the news as well. Knocking on the door before going in, he walked in with a smile on his face.

"I hope you have a good reason for interrupting Taiyang," Goodwitch said. "You may be a police officer, but I'm still willing to give you a reprimand none the less."

"I have some big news for Pyrrha," Taiyang said, causing Pyrrha to turn towards him. "Pyrrha, for the near foreseeable future, you will be staying with myself, Ruby and Yang." Taiyang could see the shock on Pyrrha's face, giving him a reason to smile. "You happy about that?"

"Y-yeah, I really appreciate this," Pyrrha said. "But, what are you going to tell Ruby and Yang?"

"Well, what do you want me to say?"

Pyrrha didn't want Ruby or Yang to know about what was going on, at least not yet. "C-can I speak with at least one of them beforehand and make something up until I feel I can tell them the truth?"

Taiyang didn't even need to think about his answer. "Of course, we'll just have to find a way to bring Ruby over here."

"Don't worry," Ozpin said, surprising everyone. "I know of a way that could work."

* * *

Ruby was concerned. Not only was Pyrrha not there at lunch, she wasn't seen at all during the day. "So, she wasn't in any classes at all today?" Ruby asked the gang as they sat at lunch.

"I didn't see her during chemistry earlier today," Jaune replied.

"Saw your dad though," Nora mentioned. Everyone turned to look at her, and the worst ran through all of their minds, except Nora. "What, he was walking out of Ozpin's office, out of uniform. I tried to say hi but I guess he didn't notice me."

"Oh god, something must have happened to Pyrrha," Ruby said, dropping her head into her arms. "We shouldn't have let her walk back on her own Yang, I just know we shouldn't have."

"Ruby, we don't know that, for all we know, Pyrrha could've just gotten a cold and forgot to tell one of us," Yang said, though even she was doubting what she said.

Before they could think of anything else, Ozpin appeared behind Ruby. "Miss Rose, could you do me a favor?"

"Professor Ozpin?" Ruby asked, wondering why he was out asking her for help.

"I need you to report to these professors and collect some work from them for a student who wasn't able to make it to class today," Ozpin said. "Please be quick while you do this, ok?"

"Uh, sure, I can do that," Ruby replied before beginning to assist Ozpin with the request that was placed on her.

It didn't take her long to grab all of the assignments that she needed to pick up, and Ozpin provided her with a note that she could give to her professor after she was finished. By the time she had made it to the office, she wasn't as surprised to see her dad waiting outside the conference room. "Hey squirt, what's up?"

"Wow, Nora was right, she did see you here," Ruby said.

"When did Nora see me?" Taiyang asked, pretending to be amused, but secretly wondering if Nora had seem more than just himself.

"She saw you walking out of Ozpin's office earlier today," Ruby explained, prompting Taiyang to breathe a sigh of relief. "Anyway, I was told to bring this work to the conference room."

"Ah, that sounds about right," Taiyang said. He knocked on the door and opened it up to let the person inside know that Ruby was there. "Go on in." Taiyang said once he looked back at Ruby.

When Ruby walked in, she was shocked to find Pyrrha sitting in one of the chairs along the table, a worn smile on her face, with slightly red eyes. "Hey Ruby, what's up?" Pyrrha asked weakly.

Ruby placed the books down onto the table then enveloped Pyrrha in a brutal hug, one that caused Pyrrha to nearly scream out in pain because of her arm. "I was so worried about you. When none of us saw you we were all wondering if you were alright." By that point, Ruby had let go, and Pyrrha started to rub her left arm gently, though she kept the face of pain masked so Ruby wouldn't feel badly. "Why didn't you tell us where you were?"

"Sorry, I had to speak with your dad about an apparent incident that happened on my way home that I saw last night," Pyrrha said. She obviously had a bit of time to think about what she wanted to say, so it came out as if it were the truth. "Anyway, I actually wanted to ask you something, well, you and your father if that's alright by you."

"Depends on what it is I guess," Taiyang said, acting according to the plan that he and Pyrrha had set up beforehand.

"Well, my parents are going to be out of town for a few weeks and I couldn't tag along with them, so I need to find someplace to stay until they get back I guess," Pyrrha said. "I figured you guys have a spare room that I could borrow, and you know me well enough already, so could you help me out?"

"Oh, please daddy would you let her, please please please please please?" Ruby pleaded.

"Well, I don't know, it doesn't seem like you're prepared for it," Taiyang said.

"We can always stop by my house to pick up some extra clothes before we go," Pyrrha said. She knew it was true, most of her clothes were left at her home and she needed to grab them anyway.

Taiyang knew how much Pyrrha wouldn't be looking forward to that, but it needed to be done. "Alright I guess," Taiyang said, with a faked giving in tone. "I'm sure Ruby and Yang would love to have you around."

"Oh my god this is going to be so awesome!" Ruby beamed, jumping up and down with full excitement. Pyrrha was even smiling, and not the kind of smile that she wanted to put on to make others feel better, this was a genuine smile showing how happy she actually was.

"Ok, Ruby, I really need to get back to speaking with Pyrrha," Taiyang interrupted. "And I'm sure you need to get back to class. So get going, I'll see you later today after I'm done this and helping Pyrrha pick up her things."

Ruby settled down, though she didn't want to leave the moment. Pyrrha didn't want her to go either, but she knew that it had to be done. "Aw alright," Ruby said as she hugged her dad. "Love you, dad. I'll see you both later." Ruby walked out of the room and made the trek over to the rest of her classes.

"Ruby didn't hurt you too badly with that hug earlier right?" Taiyang asked once Ruby was out of earshot.

"I'll live," Pyrrha said. "I didn't mind the hug from her actually."

"Well, I'm glad to hear about it," Taiyang replied. "Anyway, I think we're just about done here for now. Just gotta wait for Qrow to get back with the paperwork and then we can grab anything you need from your place before we head back home."

"Is it just you coming with me for that?" Pyrrha asked.

"Both myself and Qrow will be there to ensure that you're safe. One of us will be with you at all times, the other will keep an eye out in case either of your parents return home so that we may speak with them and tell them what is happening. Don't worry, they won't get a say in the matter though," Taiyang mentioned.

Instead of responding, Pyrrha simply rested her arm against the table and laid her head down on top of it. At that point, she really didn't want to do any more talking, and she just wanted to get some sleep. Her day had been long and tedious, but she managed to make it through most of it, with a little help from Ruby, whether the brunette knew it or not.

* * *

 **AN: What's this, were you not expecting this to be published this soon? Well, have I got news for you lovely ladies, gents and everyone in between. Due to how much of the story I currently have written out so far, I have decided to bump this up to being updated ONCE A WEEK!**

 **The reason I originally had it where it was, was because I wanted to make sure I had the time to get most of the story written out, meaning that there wasn't any chance of a long wait if I didn't have part of the story ready to go. So, because of that, I am pleased with where this is reaching.**

 **Now, I'm sure that this will happen, but we're almost up to 100 follows on this story! I figured this would get a decent amount, but you guys have blown away all of the expectations I had for this so far, so kudos to you guys for giving this a chance.**

 **I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, because boy was it a long one. Don't forget to review with what you thought of the chapter, and if you're new to the story, feel free to follow/fave this story so that it get's even bigger than it is now!**


	6. Walking Away

Pyrrha didn't know how she would feel about heading home, but here she was, deep inside her room gathering up anything she felt would be worth bringing with her to Ruby and Yang's place. Somehow, Pyrrha realized that it was much easier than she had originally believed that it would be, maybe knowing that she was leaving helped her bear through the anguish that her mind was experiencing. Still, even though it was easier than she had thought, Pyrrha wanted nothing more than to get out of there quickly.

She was happy that she didn't have to do this on her own. Taiyang, Ruby and Yang's father had joined her, since he was housing her for the near foreseeable future, but Qrow had also joined them, as did Tai and Qrow's boss, the local police chief, Commander Zavala. When Pyrrha came in, Qrow had asked her to point out important areas, such as the point of impact where her shoulder hit the wall, so that he could document it for the investigation. Taiyang was up in her room helping her get all the things she was bringing with her, while Qrow and Zavala were waiting right outside the front door waiting to speak with her parents and let them know what was happening.

Most of her stuff was packed up, so now all Pyrrha had to do was bring it down to the car and she could get out of there. ' _Maybe I won't have to run into my parents after all,_ ' She thought to herself.

Unfortunately for her, as she was in the middle of bringing her belongings out, she saw a car pull up into the driveway. If it wasn't for the fact that she recognized her father's car from a mile away, she would have been much more scared than she actually was. Still, Pyrrha started to worry, and she wanted to leave.

Pyrrha's father had stepped out of the car and started to approach everyone, he was clearly confused as to what was happening. Right at that moment, Qrow stepped up to him and started speaking to him. Pyrrha was close enough to hear what it was that they were saying, but she just couldn't turn away despite how much she wanted to.

"Can I help you?" Her father asked.

"I'm Lieutenant Qrow Branwen with the police department as liaison to Child Protective Services, and this is Commander Zavala, chief of the police department," Qrow stated. As soon as Qrow said Child Protective Services, Pyrrha's father immediately knew what was going on. "Are you Artemis Nikos?"

"Yes, that is me," Pyrrha's father answered, his tone enhancing just how worn down he was. "I can only guess why you guys are here."

"As of today, your daughter Pyrrha is no longer under the custody of you and your wife, pending an investigation into claims of abuse from your wife," Qrow said. "Until further notice, you are to have no contact with her in any way shape or form. Should you two happen to run into each other at say the supermarket though, as long as you just walk away without causing a fuss, we're not gonna make a big deal out of it."

Artemis simply nodded, understanding fully what was happening. "What do you need from me exactly for your investigation?"

"Most of what we need from you in terms of your relationship with Pyrrha has already been obtained," Zavala interjected, his commanding voice standing out from the conversation. "However, if you were to help us with our investigation, I'm sure that would look well on your part."

Pyrrha, up until that point, had tried as hard as she could to stay out of the conversation, but now, with how her father was being torn apart in front of her, she couldn't stay quiet any more. Only she could see what the news of her departure was doing to him.

"Dad," Pyrrha said as she slowly approached the three that were talking on the grass. "I hate that things have come to this, but if you want me to be honest, I couldn't take it anymore."

"Pyrrha, I…" Artemis tried to say something, but the words couldn't form to make things right.

"Between mom abusing me, hurting me both physically and mentally, and you drinking yourself into a stupor every single night and all but abandoning me for it, I don't feel like this is home for me anymore," Pyrrha continued. "I'm sorry, but living like this, I just can't do it."

By that point, Pyrrha's father had pieced together one thing that had happened. "Wait, what happened? Did your mother hurt you last night?" He asked in a frantic way. Qrow and Zavala both knew from that moment, that the physical aspect of Pyrrha's abuse all came from her mother.

"It's better if you don't know," Qrow said, trying to spare him the pain of knowing just how badly his daughter was hurt. "Anyway, I know this is going to be hard to handle, but please, work with us and we can help you earn the right to see Pyrrha again, as long as you do so the right way."

"I guess all I can do is try, right?" Artemis responded before walking over to the front door. Once he reached the door, he sat in front of it with his head in his hands in shame. Pyrrha thought that he saw him shaking like he was broken up and saddened by her departure, but she needed to do this, no matter how much it hurt her family.

A tap on the shoulder told her that it was time to leave. Taiyang walked with her to the car and opened the door for her to climb in. She gave her old home one last glance as she felt the car start up and drive away. Turning back forward once her old home was out of sight, Pyrrha let out a long sigh and felt exhausted.

"How you doin' kid?" Taiyang asked.

It took Pyrrha a moment to respond, she didn't know what exactly she wanted to say. Only one thought crossed her mind however, so she just went with that. "At least it was my dad who we ran into and not my mom." That one thought said so much about everything that Pyrrha was going through, the true root of her problems, and what she was thinking about now that she was able to move past this.

Taking that as a cue that she wasn't in a talkative mood, Taiyang simply turned his eyes back to the road in front of him.

* * *

By the time they reached the Xiao Long residence, Pyrrha could barely keep her eyes open. She had been up for well over 24 hours by that point, with maybe an hour or two of very poor sleep in the middle. In short, Pyrrha was on the verge of falling asleep, but there was still stuff to do before she could.

As she started to bring her belongings into the spare room that she had already occupied the night before, Pyrrha noticed Yang come over to help. "Hey, missed you in school today," Yang said as she started to grab some of Pyrrha's bags. "Ruby told me what happened, but I wanted to check on you myself."

Pyrrha smiled, it was nice having people care for her and go out of their way to see if she was doing alright. "Yeah, sorry about that, with everything that happened I guess I missed out on classes," She said, feigning vibrant happiness like she usually does. In an instant though, she yawned, her body betraying the veil she pulled overhead. "Though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tired right now."

"Right, I can only imagine how tired you are, having to be up for so long in one sitting," Yang replied as she helped bring Pyrrha's bags into 'her' room.

"Didn't you and I try staying up for as long as possible before on a dare?" Pyrrha asked, remembering some good times with her friends to block out the bad day and a half she went through.

"Yeah and I remember you winning that bet over me," Yang said. "I still can't believe you went 60 hours straight with no sleep before, and during the middle of school too I may add."

"What can I say, I wanted to win that bet," Pyrrha said.

As she brought in more of her belongings, Ruby came over to help speed up the process. Taiyang told Ruby and Yang to let Pyrrha relax with a shower while the three of them help set up her room for her. Soon Pyrrha's room was set up and all her things were placed where Pyrrha wanted them to be. Now that she was finished, Pyrrha kicked off her shoes and all but flopped down onto her bed. Still, there were some people that wanted to hang out with Pyrrha, that being Ruby.

"How can you be tired right now?" Ruby asked. "You just got here like 15-20 minutes ago."

"Ruby, you do realize that she has been awake pretty much since yesterday right?" Taiyang interrupted from the doorway to the bedroom. "Let her get some sleep."

Pyrrha felt bad over not being able to hang out with Ruby, but she really did need sleep, and thus she silently thanked Taiyang for his timely intervention. "Ok, fine," Ruby conceded. "But that just means we're hanging out tomorrow after school, got it?"

Pyrrha was close to passing out and wanted to be left alone so she could do just that. The shower had felt incredible to her sore body, but nothing would beat a good nights sleep. Seeing Ruby and Taiyang wish her goodnight before leaving, Pyrrha smiled until the door closed, her eyelids soon shutting afterwards and Pyrrha's mind turning off so she could sleep.

* * *

Sleep wasn't easy for Pyrrha that evening. Throughout the night she was tossing and turning, despite how tired she was. Her mind was ablaze with nightmares, memories of her past, even worries of the future to come. No matter what, she couldn't escape these thoughts that were tormenting her while she slept. The worst had been over, at least some would say that, but for Pyrrha, it didn't seem to stop, no matter how much she fought it.

Jolting awake, Pyrrha nearly screamed as she sat up in the bed, sweat pouring down her face, her body shaking fiercely and he eyes widened by fear. As Pyrrha looked around to see what was going on, she remembered where she was at. With that thought in mind, Pyrrha wiped the sweat from her brow and took a few deep breathes to slow the thunderous beating of her heart.

"Just a dream," Pyrrha whimpered to herself as she turned to sit along the edge of the bed. She stood up after a moment and walked to the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror once she walked in. For lack of a better term, Pyrrha thought that she looked terrible based off of the reflection she saw of herself. Starting up the sink, she splashed some water onto her face since it was clear that sleep would elude her yet again.

Soon afterwards she returned to her room and reached for her phone. Opening it up, she saw the time, that being 4:30 in the morning, as well as multiple missed calls. Part of her was worried that it was her parents trying to contact her, but she had been given instructions on what to do if that happened. Once she looked at who it was that was trying to call her, part of her felt a little bit of relief when she saw that it was actually her cousin Blake. Along with the notifications that went with the missed calls, she had one message left for her.

 _"Call me as soon as you get this!"_

The fact that Blake was adamant about getting a hold of her wasn't surprising at first. Blake was one of the few people that sort of knew that Pyrrha was going through a hard time at home, but even she didn't know the full details, no one did. Seeing as how Blake was in France studying abroad until the holidays, Pyrrha figured that she would be well awake by now. She decided to give her cousin a call, hoping that Blake would have a free opportunity to talk with her.

Instead of just hearing Blake through her phone, Pyrrha actually saw her face appear on the screen. Clearly Blake needed to actually see her right at that moment, but it caught Pyrrha off guard a little bit. She saw Blake's worried expression and it was clear that Blake knew what was going on, how she knew though, that was anyone's guess. Pyrrha signaled to Blake that she needed a second, before grabbing a pair of headphones and attaching them to her phone. Afterwards, she dimmed the lights down enough so that it was hard to see the room Pyrrha was in, but still bright enough to see her face.

"Hey," Pyrrha said weakly.

"Oh my god, Pyrrha what happened?" Blake frantically asked. "I got a call from my mom this morning telling me that something came up with you and your family and that you weren't living with them anymore or something like that, and it really freaked me out."

Pyrrha, in all the time that she knew her cousin, had never heard her act so frantically and speak so much in a given sentence as quickly as she just did. Most of the time she was the quiet, calm, and thoughtful one, but she could only guess that this had left an impact on her.

"It's all true," Pyrrha admitted. "I'm no longer living with my parents any more. I don't know how much I can actually tell you, but it involves Child Protective Services, so you know it's serious."

"What?" Blake questioned. She really didn't want to believe that this was happening. "Pyrrha, are you alright? What the hell did your parents do?"

"My mom, she," Pyrrha didn't know why to say that wouldn't make things worse for Blake to have to hear. "She hurt me, I don't know how else to say it and I don't know what I can tell you exactly. I can't even tell you where I'm staying at right now because the officers who are helping me through this said not to. Something about how you could accidentally tell your parents or mine, which could then lead to my parents knowing where I am and trying to take me away and making things much worse."

"Dammit Pyrrha, I'm getting a plane ticket back stateside so I can be there for you," Blake said immediately.

"No!"

Pyrrha's shout was a surprise to Blake, and she seemed hurt by it. "Please, I know that you want to come back home and help, but right now things are still settling down and I don't know if I'd even be allowed to see you should you do come home. I'd love it if you could come over, but right now it isn't feasible. Maybe after some time goes by we could work something out, but right now it can't happen."

Blake looked completely helpless at that moment, and Pyrrha knew that she felt that was as well. "God why does this have to happen?" Blake asked. "Why do you have to go through this crap?"

"I don't know, Blake," Pyrrha replied, feeling helpless herself after all but shooting down Blake's attempt at helping. "I really don't know."

Blake looked upset, but something else caught her attention. "Great, I got classes coming up in a bit so I gotta go," Blake called out quickly.

"Ok, I'll try to keep you up to date if I can," Pyrrha said.

"You had better," Blake ordered. "Love ya cuz."

"Love ya too, Blake," Pyrrha replied, ending the conversation. Looking at the bed, she knew that sleep was still out of the question. So instead, she decided to take the chance and get started on this new journal that she was given.

As a way to help Pyrrha express her feelings and emotions in a way that she felt comfortable doing, Goodwitch gave Pyrrha a journal that she was to use as a way to express her feelings in a safe way. Every day she was to write down how she felt about the day, if she had any troubles with her thoughts, things like that, and the hope was that she could express herself and get all of these emotions out and off her chest, instead of them being bottled up until she explodes.

Given that she didn't write anything for yesterday, Pyrrha decided to do that while she was awake. She certainly had a lot to talk about, and Goodwitch asked her to spare no expense in terms of detail, the more detailed it was, the better it would be in the long run.

So Pyrrha set forth on writing everything out, and before she knew it, Pyrrha had written out all that she wanted to say, and the sun had started to come up. She felt a little tired still, but it wasn't enough to really mess with her throughout the day. Pyrrha got dressed and walked out of her room so she could grab a bite to eat. Along the way she ran into Taiyang as he was about to head out.

"How you holding up, Pyrrha?" He asked.

"Better than yesterday," Pyrrha mumbled, she was still uncomfortable with everything that was going on and worked to shield herself as much as she felt was necessary. People wouldn't know about the incident, especially if she had anything to say about it. "Spoke with my cousin after waking up, but she's out in France right now studying abroad, so you don't need to worry about her. She wanted to see me, but I figured I would clear it with you and Qrow first before doing so."

"We'll see what we can do, but for now just don't worry about things, ok?" Taiyang said as he patted her right arm. "I gotta get to work, but don't be afraid to call myself or Qrow if you need anything, got it?"

"Ok," Pyrrha answered and she walked over to the kitchen so she could eat.

Once she reached the kitchen, she saw Ruby and Yang sitting down at the table in the other room getting breakfast. She gently poured herself some cereal, taking care not to use her left arm for anything. Afterwards, she brought it over to the table and joined the sisters to get some food.

"Hey, how's it going Pyrrha?" Yang asked once Pyrrha sat down.

"Alright, I guess," Pyrrha replied.

"You seemed pretty out of it last night by the time we got your stuff into the spare bedroom," Ruby cut in. "Feeling better?"

"I'm fine," Pyrrha immediately said, trying to get the topic off of her.

Yang picked up on that, sensing that something may be going on with the red haired girl. "You sure about that? Seems like something is bothering you."

"Yang, I'm fine," Pyrrha said as she gave Yang a pretty harsh glare. She took a few more bites of the cereal in front of her and lost her appetite. Pyrrha then got up and walked down to her room so she could grab her stuff together.

All the while, Yang and Ruby were shocked at the way that Pyrrha was acting. They had never seen her this agitated before and it was a surprise to the two of them. They went back and forth looking at each other and the door leading to the basement, wondering if Pyrrha was going to come back up before they left. To their surprise she did, with her school bag over her shoulder. The sisters looked and saw that Pyrrha held a slightly guilty look on her face as she approached the table.

"Sorry for earlier, I guess I'm still not feeling the greatest," Pyrrha said, trying to appear more cheerful than she actually was, though the apology was genuine. "You guys forgive me?"

"Yeah, of course," Ruby said in response. "If something's bothering you though, don't be afraid to tell us, ok?"

"Sure," Pyrrha said.

Despite that, Yang and Ruby looked at each other and knew that something was going on. They silently agreed to keep an eye on things since Pyrrha didn't seem to want to share what was actually going on with them, in case things got worse.

* * *

 **AN: So, in celebration of Extra Life, of which I am currently participating in as of the posting of this chapter, I am publishing this chapter early for you guys to see! I would really appreciate it even more if you guys could come out and support my stream after reading this, since all of the money that would be raised is for charity.**

 **Anyway, for Palkia Nightfire, this updates once a week guaranteed, normally on sundays. So fear not, you'll get more of this story to come as the weeks progress.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please come out to support my stream!**


	7. Opening Up pt 1

**AN: Before we begin this chapter, I wanted to take a moment to talk about something recently that happened in the world. On Friday, the people of Paris France experienced a truly horrific tragedy in which so many people lost their life. Nothing can ever be done to bring back the lives that were lost, but we can still do much to help those affected by this tragedy. Today, I want to take a moment to say that the people who were affected are in my thoughts, and I hope that we as a society can come together and show the world that we will stand above this and remember those who were lost. I'll raise a drink in their name tonight.  
**

 **Take a moment to hug the people whom you care about tonight,**

 **NobleMETA**

* * *

It had only been a few days since Pyrrha left home, but she had already felt that things were starting to look better for her. Ruby and Yang had gone well out of their way to ensure that Pyrrha felt comfortable with them, and because of that, Pyrrha had started to adjust to living with the sisters. Pyrrha would often times help Ruby out with some homework if the younger girl asked for it, but more often than not, the three of them would end up either watching a movie or playing some kind of game till they went to bed at night.

Despite that though, Pyrrha still had nightmares every night, and often woke up in a cold sweat. Her should still hurt viciously, but the medication that she was taking to dull the pain certainly helped her get through the day. One other thing that Pyrrha didn't realize until she started to live with Ruby and Yang, she was living with Ruby, the girl she had a huge crush on. If Pyrrha wasn't trying to keep Ruby and Yang from learning about what had actually happened to her, she was working to keep herself from going insane because of her crush and the results that came with it.

It was hard, but Pyrrha was managing to make it through somehow with her sanity intact, but barely though. Certain days seemed worse than others, though she realized it was something that could change in mere moments. She knew her life was becoming unpredictable, and with how emotionally vulnerable she had been, Pyrrha was working really hard to keep her head above water.

Still, Monday was always a bad day of the week, everyone knew that. That particular day though was nothing but nerve-wracking for Pyrrha though. She kept getting distracted by her thoughts, which led to her worrying about losing it in the middle of a class. Add on the fact that walking in between classes was a nightmare with her shoulder in the condition it was, and Pyrrha was practically a time-bomb, ready to detonate on the next person that gets on her nerves.

What didn't help Pyrrha out, was the fact that she was completely oblivious to everything that was going on around her. People could've been trying to gain her attention furiously, and she wouldn't notice it one bit. That was, unless a blonde haired woman named Yang, whom Pyrrha was sitting at lunch with along with her other friends, decided to get her attention through physical means.

"Yo, earth to Pyrrha, you alright?"

Unfortunately for Pyrrha, that meant Yang landing a smack right on her injured left shoulder.

One moment, Pyrrha was staring off into the distance, the next, she had to force herself not to scream out in pain as she grasped her shoulder and nearly slammed her head against the table. The grimace that Pyrrha held on her face didn't go unnoticed either, everyone at lunch had turned their full attention towards her, all of them worried for her as well. They had never seen her like this, so it was a shock to them to say the least.

"Pyrrha?" Yang said, worried that she had done something wrong.

Eventually, Pyrrha reigned in the pain and as it dulled out, her face returned to normal, at least what she hoped people would see as normal. When she looked at everyone staring at her, she knew that they were suspicious of what was going on.

"What?" Pyrrha asked everyone.

"The hell was that?" Neptune asked. "You just like, freaked out when Yang smacked your shoulder to get your attention."

"Oh, well, I guess it just took me by surprise is all," Pyrrha tried to explain, though it wasn't working that well. She was mostly a horrible liar, mostly.

"Really, then why are you still clutching your arm like it hurts?" Weiss asked.

Pyrrha didn't even realize that she was doing that until Weiss pointed it out to her. She quickly let go of her arm and realized that she wasn't getting out of this. With that, Pyrrha grabbed her stuff and started to pack up. She felt a hand on her shoulder, the good one, and it prompted her to turn and see those silver eyes that had been a part of her adoration for the longest time.

"Pyrrha, what's going on?" Ruby asked, hoping to get a straight answer from her.

Unfortunately, Pyrrha was hell bent on getting out of there. Without giving Ruby a chance to say anything else, she stood up and walked away after a few parting words. "Nothing, I gotta go." And with that, Pyrrha left like a bat outta hell.

She knew where it was she wanted to go though, one person that she wanted to talk to about all of this that was going on with her, or most of it to say the least. Pyrrha didn't take notice of the stares that were sent her way, or the whispers of confusion from those around her, she only wanted to get to where she was going. Thankfully everyone was either in class or at the cafeteria, so the halls were clear for her to travel through.

Soon afterwards, she stood in front of the door she sought out. Knocking on it gently, she waited until it opened up for her before taking any other action. The room's occupant stepped out and was surprised to see her, but it made little difference since he knew what was going on.

"Miss Nikos?" Professor Ozpin said as he realized who was standing there. "Forgive my abruptness but I'm surprised to see you here."

"Is it ok if I speak with you about something?" Pyrrha asked softly.

"Of course, please step inside my office," Ozpin replied. "Is there anything that I could gather for you, a hot drink, some tea, anything of the sort?" Ozpin shut the door behind him in case anyone walked by so that they had some privacy.

"I'm good, thank you though," Pyrrha said as she took a seat in front of his desk. She waited for Ozpin to sit down at his desk before speaking up again. "I'm really sorry to bother you, but I wanted to say something that has been hard for me to deal with lately."

"And what would that be exactly?"

Pyrrha, despite having come her to air her grievances, didn't know what to say, where to begin. "Well uh, I'm not exactly sure what to start with, I don't know how to say all of this."

"It's quite alright, take all the time that you need," Ozpin said. He took a sip of his coffee before speaking up himself. "If I may ask, does this have anything to do in any way to the recent developments in your life?"

It was as good a place as any to start with, and Pyrrha knew it. "Yeah, I guess things are still fresh in my mind," She said. "I keep having nightmares that my mother is going to try and take me away, hurt me for running away from home. But that's not all of it. I'm afraid of telling Ruby and Yang about what's going on, not because I don't trust them, but because I don't want them to worry about me."

Giving a thought about what had occurred during lunch, Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Though given what I've been acting like the past few days, what I've been going through, I'm pretty sure they're already freaked out and worried about me as is."

"Could it be that part of the reason you're bearing this burden is because you keep bottling your emotions up?" Ozpin suggested.

"What do you mean?"

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before placing it down onto the desk. The then stood up and walked over to look out the window in his office. "While you have that journal that you can use to write out your emotions, you still refuse to speak with anyone outside of the people you have to about what you've been through. You're friends deserve to know what's going on in your life, and when you bottle your emotions up, it hurts them because they may feel as though they are helpless. They are your friends and they would want nothing more than to see you genuinely smile, without the mask you put up so that people don't see the other side of your life. Sometimes even the best of us need a helping hand from someone whom we are close friends with."

The advice rung true in Pyrrha's heart, she needed to tell Ruby and Yang soon, the rest of their friends soon afterwards. Maybe not today, but when she felt she was ready. "I guess I'll try, they are my friends after all."

"Then you've found the answer you have been seeking," Ozpin mentioned. "Whenever you feel ready to say something, do so, but until them, just remind them that you need to be ready to speak of this yourself, and that forcing it out of you would only do more harm. They are your friends after all, so they should understand what you're saying." He turned towards the door and opened it up for Pyrrha to walk out of the office. "I hope the rest of your day goes well, Pyrrha."

Giving a half hearted smile, Pyrrha walked to her next class since it was almost time for it to start. By the time she got there, she took her seat and found that Yang walked in soon after her. Yang usually sat with her, so she would get a chance to explain.

"Is everything ok, Pyrrha? You kinda stormed out of the cafeteria really quickly," Yang said as she sat down in her chair.

"Yeah, just needed to do some thinking is all," Pyrrha replied. She turned to Yang and gave her a smile as a way to help alleviate the blonde's concerns. "I know you're all concerned about me, but right now there's just some things I need to handle myself. I promise I'll explain everything to you guys later, but understand that this is something I need to do alone for now."

Yang took a deep breath and nodded after a few moments of thought. "Alright, but don't leave us out in the dark for too long ok? We're all really concerned about you."

"I know, Yang," Pyrrha whispered. "And I appreciate the concern, I really do." Before Yang could give a reply, class was ready to begin, so Pyrrha and Yang turned their attention back towards the front of the room.

* * *

After school, Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha and Weiss went out to the grocery store. Ruby and Yang needed to get groceries for the house, so Pyrrha had to join in with them for the endeavor. Weiss had decided to spend some time with Yang that evening so she tagged along with the trio, thankful that Pyrrha was there to keep her company while the two sisters went about on their wacky adventure.

Still, Pyrrha wasn't much help to Weiss, she was too lost in thought to really focus that much, and Weiss could tell. She was cognizant enough to realize when Ruby and Yang were trying to ask her a question concerning what she wanted food wise, or when Weiss tried to speak with her about something, but in between, she kept thinking about other things with her life.

The rest of school had gone by pretty quickly, much to Pyrrha's delight. She doubted that there would be much that she could do given the circumstances, so to skirt through the rest of the day easily had been a much needed relief to her. She just knew that it would be another long night contemplating all of the things that were going on in her life.

"Pyrrha, do you want to get some snacks or something?" Ruby had asked her as they were walking through the aisles of the grocery store.

Snapping to attention, Pyrrha gave Ruby an answer after some thought. "I guess if you could get some celery sticks and maybe a bag of chips for me as a snack that would be fine."

Pyrrha then turned her attention to the shelves to look through the items and figure out if there was anything else that she was interested in finding. Much to her displeasure, there was nothing there that she seemed interested in, so she moved down the aisle and kept looking at the shelves, losing herself in thought once more.

"Hey, Pyrrha, isn't that your mom down at the end of the aisle?"

Pyrrha had almost reached out to grab an item from the shelf, but once she heard Ruby speak up, she froze solid. Her eyes went wide and she could feel her heart beating in her chest, the pulsing nearly closing her throat in on itself from how fast her blood was pumping through her body. Fear had started to take over, the object of those fears right down the aisle a few hundred feet away from her. Pyrrha started to shake in fear, and her breathing became ragged, she became terrorized by the thoughts that were running through her head, thoughts that paralyzed her to the ground she stood upon at that very moment.

It was her worst nightmare come to life, the idea that her mother would come for her, hurt her, all because she wanted to escape and live a normal life. Now she believed that everything she had gone through in the past few days was all about to disappear in the blink of an eye, all because her mother had found out where her missing daughter had gotten off to.

It took Ruby, Weiss and Yang a moment to realize that Pyrrha was stiff as a board. They tried to grab her attention, but were confused as to what it was that was going on. ' _Jesus, she's gone fully rigid, and she looks afraid of something,_ ' Weiss thought to herself as she contemplated what was going on. ' _The only thing that Ruby mentioned what that her mother was..._ ' It took Weiss that one moment of thought to realize exactly what was going on, and she figured out why Pyrrha had been acting the way she was, the torture she was secretly enduring. ' _Oh god no._ '

Weiss knew that someone needed to act, someone needed to get Pyrrha out of there that moment. Seeing as how it looked like she was the only one who seemed to have some clue as to what was going on, that burden was laid upon her. She took one look down the aisle to see that Pyrrha's mother hadn't noticed them, then she moved into action.

"Yang, give me the keys."

"Wait, what? Why?" Yang asked.

"Just trust me, ok? I'm gonna take Pyrrha out to the car, you two finish up in here and then head out there to meet with us," Weiss commanded. "No arguments."

Yang indignantly threw the keys at Weiss, who expertly caught them with one hand while grasping Pyrrha and leading her out of the grocery store. While Yang and Ruby continued to go on shopping, Weiss quickly led Pyrrha towards the car. Only when they stepped into the car did Pyrrha finally have the power to move of her own will.

She held a hand up to her mouth and covered it as she sobbed loudly into her hand. Her knees came up to her chest and she grasped onto them as if her life was depending on it. Weiss started to rub her back, but Pyrrha continued to sob, the fear and adrenaline of what had just happened coursing through her body. Weiss remained silent, giving Pyrrha the space she needed while still being there for her to lean on should she need it.

One thing Pyrrha knew for certain though. Before she had the chance to talk with Ruby and Yang when she felt ready, but now she no longer had any choice in the matter.

* * *

 **AN: Now, onto the really good stuff. So, to tease something really good, I'm currently working with a couple friends on the possibility of one giant collaboration of pure awesomeness. Hopefully we get stuff with that ready soon, but for now it's still in pre-production.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, don't forget to follow/fave/review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	8. Opening Up pt 2

By the time Ruby and Yang finished their shopping and climbed into the car with Weiss and Pyrrha, Pyrrha had calmed down a bit. However, it was still clear to both of the sisters that something had scared Pyrrha in the supermarket, something that had clearly traumatized her, paralyzed her in fear. They were well prepared for a silent car ride back to the Xiao-Long-Rose Residence, but the silence of it all was a very disheartening one that neither of the sisters were ready for. The only words that Pyrrha said once Ruby and Yang got into the car were a plea to go back home, which the sisters were more than willing to oblige on.

Once they got in, Pyrrha went straight downstairs, with Ruby following her close behind. Yang and Weiss went to put away the groceries before joining Pyrrha and Ruby downstairs as well. They found the two sitting on the couch in the basement, silence between the two of them. Ruby clearly wanted to ask about what had happened, Yang wanted to know that as well. Weiss however, wanted Pyrrha to say that none of her suspicions were true and that the white haired girl was just being paranoid and jumping to false conclusions.

"Do you mind if I get changed?" Pyrrha weakly asked. "If I'm going to explain all of that, I want to feel as comfortable as possible."

The sisters and Weiss of course had no objections, and it gave them some time to speak to each other about what it was that they thought happened without upsetting Pyrrha. Once Pyrrha had closed the door to her room, Ruby was the first to speak up.

"What the heck happened? One minute she was normal, or at least normal for how Pyrrha has been these past few days, and the next she looked like she was in a nightmare."

"Yeah, after you mentioned her mom she just turned frozen statue," Yang pondered next. "Didn't she say her parents were going to be out of town for a while by the way?"

"I have my theory on all of this," Weiss chimed in, drawing Ruby and Yang's attention. "I just hope that what I'm thinking is absolutely wrong."

At that point, Pyrrha had decided to make her return to the living room. Weiss was the first to notice, and she wished that she hadn't. "Oh my god," Weiss said as she felt her legs wobble and nearly give out under her. She grasped a hold of the freezer in the basement just so she could stay upright. When Yang and Ruby turned to see what it was that Weiss was freaking out about, they were treated to an absolutely horrid sight that shocked the both of them.

Pyrrha had come out of the room in her usual pajamas, but instead of having them all the way on, her shirt was folded neatly in her right arm, leaving only a bra covering her chest. Her entire left side was exposed, all the bruising and bandages she had covering her shoulder and arm exposed to the world, and Ruby, Weiss and Yang bore witness to the entirety of it.

Yang was the first to speak up, and not only that, she jumped out of her seat and ran over to Pyrrha's side. "Pyrrha, what the hell happened to you?"

Instead of letting Yang help her, Pyrrha shuffled past the blonde and took a seat upon the couch. She curled up into a ball as she felt terrified of what was happening. She didn't want her friends to find out like this, she wanted to tell them when she was ready, but she knew that wasn't a possibility anymore.

"Pyrrha?" Ruby called out, hoping that she would be able to break through to the woman.

It worked, because when Pyrrha heard Ruby call to her, she turned to face her and saw those compassionate silver eyes. Pyrrha had tears in her own eyes, but deep down she wanted to fight past them so she could tell her friends the truth of her situation. Taking a deep breath, she thought of where to begin, and once she knew what to start with, she went into the explanation, her voice sounding much calmer than it should have been.

"Do you remember the day that I was out of class, the one where I first asked to stay here with you guys?" Pyrrha asked, drawing nods from Ruby and Yang. "Well, I told you I was with the police talking about an incident that happened the night before, but I wasn't completely honest with you guys. I wasn't the witness to a crime, I was the person who was hurt because of it."

Ruby and Yang looked at each other, trying to figure out who would do such a thing to Pyrrha. Weiss though, after realizing what had caused Pyrrha to go into a paralyzed state of fear, knew what had happened, and that sickened her. Weiss walked off to the side, her hand covering her mouth in shock. She didn't know how something like this could happen but here it was, the burden of proof resting on Pyrrha's body.

"The truth is, after you guys dropped me off when we finished with the movie and dinner out, is when it happened," Pyrrha continued. "I got home and my mother she, she was livid at me for one reason or another, they all just kind of mix together now, any excuse is interchangeable with the others." By that point, Pyrrha was starting to lose the calm in her tone and she started to waver. "She started to yell at me and then, she pushed me down the stairs and my arm slammed into the wall. Immediately afterwards, she started to kick me, call me names, insult me, just about everything imaginable."

After hearing about what had happened, Ruby, Yang and Weiss were appalled by the behavior of Pyrrha's mother. They had never suspected that something like this would happen, especially not to someone as sweet and kind as Pyrrha. Ruby threw her arms around Pyrrha, taking care not to harm her already injured shoulder any more.

"I can't believe that something like this would happen to you," Yang said.

"It's not like I mentioned this to anyone," Pyrrha said. She didn't want Ruby, Weiss, or Yang to feel as if they're at fault for not helping. "I've kept this hidden for the past 12 years, you didn't know this was going on."

"So is that why you grabbed your arm earlier today at lunch?" Yang asked.

"Yeah," Pyrrha answered. "Partial fracture in my collar bone, along with a partially torn rotator cuff will do that to you, huh."

"Oh my god, that's terrible."

Pyrrha felt tears coming down her face. This was the first time she told anyone outside of the authorities that something was going on in her family life, and yet for the first time, she felt as if a weight was pulled off of her. ' _I guess Ozpin was right, I just needed to talk with someone about this,_ ' She thought to herself when she saw the people who were all caring for her. Ruby had wrapped herself around Pyrrha in an effort to comfort the girl, Yang was sitting in a chair wondering if there was anything that she could've done, and Weiss had her back to Pyrrha and the rest of them in an effort to conceal the fact that she was crying for Pyrrha.

If only Pyrrha knew that Ruby was feeling absolutely terrible for something she completely overlooked. Ruby was thinking of how much she must have hurt Pyrrha after that hug she gave to the red head when she finally saw her on that day that Pyrrha was missing, the very next day after Pyrrha was injured during the night before. Ruby didn't know what else to do besides hold Pyrrha, in a way that didn't hurt, so that she could make up from what she had done. She wanted to do more, but at the moment, she couldn't stop feeling awful over what she did.

By that point, they heard the garage door open, meaning that Taiyang had made his return home. Yang stood up, clearly intent on speaking with him, but she stopped right next to Pyrrha before doing so. "I'm really sorry that I didn't help, Pyrrha," She said to her best friend. "If I had known-"

"Yang, stop!" Pyrrha proclaimed. She still had a waver in her voice, but the strong command stopped Yang mid sentence. "You didn't know, no one did and that's my fault since I didn't want people to know. Please stop beating yourself up over this, ok? I just need you to be here for me now, ok?"

It took Yang a second to respond, and after she nodded in confirmation, the blonde walked upstairs to speak with her father, Weiss trailing behind her. As they reached the top of the stairs, Yang went straight over to her father, who was looking through the fridge so that he could see what was available.

"Hey, no offense Yang, but normally you've at least started dinner by now," Taiyang commented. Normally Yang was the one who made dinner since her father didn't get home till later in the day. Since they all ate as a family together, Yang cooked the food so that they didn't eat late every single night. "Even with Weiss here too, normally she's on your ass about getting that done for us when she is over."

"Yeah, well we had something come up that needed to be taken care of first," Yang said.

The way she spoke told Taiyang that something was going on, something had to have happened that caused Yang to divert not only her attention, but Weiss' attention away. "Ok, what happened? Do I need to beat anyone up?"

Weiss was the one who spoke up before Yang did. "While we were out getting the groceries, we happened to notice Pyrrha's mother."

When Taiyang heard about that, he knew instantly what had happened. "Shit, what happened?"

"She just, froze up looking as if she was absolutely terrified for her life," Yang commented. "Weiss pulled her out of the store immediately while Ruby and I finished up in there, but when we got out to the car she looked like a mess. Once we get back home, she tells us that her parents hurt her, and have been for a long time apparently."

"Ok," Taiyang responded. "Where is she now?"

"She's down with Ruby in the basement, last I saw Ruby was trying to help comfort her," Weiss mentioned.

"Good, I'll talk with Pyrrha about this once she feels better," Taiyang said.

"Why didn't she tell us that her parents were abusing her?" Yang asked out of nowhere.

"It's not her parents," Taiyang cut in. "Well, not entirely speaking. Your Uncle Qrow has been working this case for Pyrrha, and from what he tells me, her father has done nothing to physically harm her. The only thing he does is drink too much, and Pyrrha herself even said her father isn't a bad guy, just a bit neglectful at times because of his drinking habit. He's actually been very cooperative with Qrow in trying to get himself back on track, and ensure that Pyrrha's mother doesn't harm her again."

Yang felt some kind of relief that at least one of Pyrrha's parents was making an attempt. "Well that sounds good, I hope."

"Yeah, but times are difficult for him and so it's hard to keep him from drinking," Taiyang mentioned. "What he needs is a stable job that would be capable of helping him financially and drinking wise, but those jobs are hard to come by."

Hearing about that gave Weiss a thought, something that maybe she could do to help the situation progress a little quicker. "Excuse me for a second guys, I gotta make a phone call." Earning two confused expressions in return, Weiss walked over to Yang's room so she could have some privacy, before pulling out her phone so she could call someone she believed would help.

"Hello, Weiss."

"Father," Weiss replied to the man once the call went through.

"I assume you're with Yang and Ruby right now, is that correct?" Weiss' father mentioned. He knew about his daughter's relationship, and so long as she was comfortable, safe and happy, then he didn't care who it was that she dated.

"Yes, but there's something that I needed to talk to you about, and a favor that I wanted to ask."

* * *

After Yang and Weiss walked upstairs, Pyrrha moved Ruby off of her so that she could put her nightshirt on. Ruby understood and gave Pyrrha a moment to do so, wondering if there was anything that she should say to the girl who was going through so much at that moment in time. By the time Pyrrha was finished, Ruby was lost in thought trying to think of something to say.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt Pyrrha wrap her arms around her and when she felt Pyrrha rest her head on Ruby's collar. Taking a hint, Ruby promptly wrapped her arm down Pyrrha's back so that the taller girl felt safe within Ruby's arms.

"I'm sorry."

Ruby was a little surprised by the sudden confession from Pyrrha. "For what?"

"I should've told you and Yang what was really going on when I asked to stay here with you," Pyrrha said. "I should've told you the truth about what was going on in my life, I wish I didn't lie to you or hide this from you." Ruby could tell that Pyrrha was going to start crying soon if she kept this up, so she started to rub her back and comfort her.

"Don't worry about that, Pyrrha," Ruby soothed. "I understand why you did what you did and while I wish you told us, I know that you did what you felt was right and you shouldn't be sorry for that. I actually wish that there was something I could've done to help you before now."

Pyrrha looked up at Ruby, a wave of exhaustion starting to take over. "Like I said with Yang, you didn't know because I didn't let you know. Don't go stressing yourself out over this, ok?"

"Alright, I guess," Ruby conceded. "Is there anything at all that I could do for you right now? Just let me know and I'll do everything I possibly can to help."

Smiling at the gesture, Pyrrha returned her head onto Ruby's collar, listening to the sounds of her beating heart to soothe her own soul. "You've done more than enough for me already just by being here when I needed you to be. I couldn't ask for anything else from you if I wanted to."

Ruby smiled as she watched Pyrrha fall asleep in her arms. She figured that Pyrrha needed some rest and so she stayed there with her so that Pyrrha wasn't alone. In the back of her mind though, she thought about how sweet and comfortable she was with Pyrrha's arms wrapped around her.

* * *

 **AN: There was one part in there that I forgot to add in originally, but a helpful review from Cuda77 actually reminded me to do that, so thank you again for mentioning it to me.**

 **Anyway, this has certainly been an interesting chapter, and things are moving along excellently. I'll be honest, I'm really surprised by the huge turnout for this story, it has been one for the records huh. That being said, I really can't wait to get more of this done because it's been incredible to write for.**

 **Also, as a little teaser, I'll say that I have a really huge idea of epic proportions coming, and hopefully I'll start putting that out really soon, but for now all I can say is just wait for the hammer to drop, you'll know when it does.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, you can leave a review, follow and fave this story, and I'll catch you in the next chapter!**


	9. World So Cold

**AN: Hey I usually don't put these before the actual chapter unless I feel it's necessary, but I wanted to let you know that despite this being a short chapter content wise, this is probably one of the single most important chapters to date because it's going to set the tone for a lot of the chapters that are coming. Just be aware of that and you'll know what I mean.  
**

* * *

Pyrrha couldn't help but toss and turn in her bed, a million thoughts running through her head that kept her from sleeping peacefully. While she managed to sleep for a few minutes at a time, it was never enough for her to stay asleep. She had too much on her mind for sleep to fully take hold, and that was starting to happen with her more and more often.

With a groan she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Pyrrha sat up from her bed and slowly wobbled her way over to the desk in her room. With all that has been happening to her in the recent days, Pyrrha was surprised that she managed to get any sleep at all because of the rampant emotions and thoughts that would frequently run through her head.

More and more often, Pyrrha would find herself writing down all of her thoughts into the journal she had been given by Goodwitch. At first she didn't think it would do anything, but it has helped her out at least a bit. Having her thoughts written down instead of kept solely inside of her mind was a much needed relief that she didn't think would ever come to her, but it was a relief to see none the less.

Normally though, she would write out her thoughts right before she went to bed, hoping that the release of emotions would help soothe her enough to garnish sleep. It didn't help too often in that regard, but that was neither here nor there. It was the thought that mattered the most, and while it didn't help her sleep better at night, the fact that she was at least able to focus during the day on what she actually need to focus on was a major help.

Pyrrha decided to write a separate entry just for all of these thoughts running through her mind at that moment. She was told to try and only write one entry per day, and that if she needed to write an extra entry, to keep those times limited. Given what was on her mind at the moment, she felt like this was one of those times that it was alright to do so.

Before she started to write out her thoughts, she decided to take a look at parts of the old entries that she wrote beforehand, to see if they were actually helping her control her thoughts and emotions.

* * *

 _October 17th:_

 _It's been a few days since everything happened to me, and while my mind is still going through the effort to try and put the pieces together, I at least get some comfort in the fact that Ruby and Yang are going out of their way to include me. Part of me wants to just be left alone, but at the same time, it's nice to feel wanted. Today we didn't have school since it's a saturday, but that didn't stop Ruby and Yang from spending the entire day with me._

 _It was actually nice, helped me get my mind off of what was happening and feel like things were normal. Of course, those moments don't last and part of the way through the day I felt like I needed to be alone. They understood though and let me be alone for a bit before I rejoined them for some fun and games after I got my thoughts in order..._

* * *

 _October 20th:_

 _Normally I would've written this entry the night before, but I guess things didn't turn out that way. Ruby and Yang found out the truth of what's been going on with me and my horrendous life. I don't want them to worry about me, but I couldn't tell them that, they would worry about me anyway. It's not in their nature to let someone they care about go around feeling hurt and upset about something._

 _..._

 _Despite waking up in each others arms this morning, I probably freaked out more than Ruby did. She was only concerned with whether I had a good night's sleep or not. I really do appreciate her bearing with me and sleeping with my arms around her for my sake._

 _It's funny actually, when I fell asleep in Ruby's arms, it was the first time since last Wednesday night when this all started that I didn't have a nightmare._

* * *

 _October 24th:_

 _Today's been an exceptionally hard day, though for the life of me I don't know why it was. Ruby and Yang wanted me to go out with them to the movies, but while I wanted to go with them, at the same time I just didn't want to go anywhere. I ended up spending the entire day in my room working on my novel or homework. I don't know why, but I just felt miserable the entire time and I couldn't get anything done like I wanted to..._

* * *

She didn't read all of the entries that she wrote, hell she didn't even go through all the one's that she did read, taking only chunks and segments and looking through them. Having read the beginning of the most recent entry, Pyrrha decided that now was a good time to write out the one with all of the reasons why she was up as late as she was.

 _Saturday, Sunday, middle of the night, something like that:_

 _I know I already made a journal entry today, but right now my mind is going insane and I can't fall asleep. Figured that maybe writing this down will help me at least get it off of my mind for the night. It has helped with all the stuff going on with my family, so why not try it with this right?_

 _No this isn't an entry about the stuff going on in terms of my family, and while that has some context to what is going on with this issue, this is unrelated and the entry should be skipped since it's one that I'm writing for myself only. This one is something that people don't need to see since there is no way to help me with this problem that I have._

 _The thing is, ever since I ran from home, I've been living with my closest friends, Yang and Ruby. The two of them have gone well out of their way to help me feel comfortable. Even their father has done all that he can to help, and I know how much of a strain I'm putting on him by being another body for a single parent to take care of._

 _But while it is great to have people surrounding me that want to make sure that I'm genuinely hapy, there's something that I've been holding back from all of them, and for good reasons too. Being here and living with them has forced me to deal with a few...unexpected problems regarding what I've kept secret for so long._

 _About a year and a half ago, I fell in love with Ruby, and I've been harboring those feelings deep inside me for a long time, refusing to say a word to anyone. Now that I'm living under the same roof as her, merely 100 ft. away, let's just say that my feelings have been a source of heartbreak for me on more than one occasion in the week and a half since I started living here._

 _I'm gonna preface this by saying that there are plenty of outside circumstances that also have a factor in what I'm going through, and that I don't put any blame on Ruby for this either. She doesn't know what I'm bearing with these feelings that I have for her, and if she did, even if she didn't feel the same way I do, she wouldn't shut me out. Instead she would treat me like a friend, and while things were to be awkward for a bit if that were the case, I know that we would move past it and stay friends in the end._

 _No, the problem all stems from my side. How could it be her problem if she doesn't know what's going on after all?_

 _Things that wouldn't be an issue between normal friends are different when one of the two has a crush on the other. I've walked in on Ruby getting out of the shower before, and she has done the same to me. Seeing her body like that, and having her see me like that...it's hard to forget that image of Ruby's attractive body out of my head. Her seeing me like that as well, I was thinking about whether or not she saw all of me, and if she liked seeing me or not, even with all of the bruises that are still plain as day on my arm._

 _We've also accidentally walked in on the other getting changed at one point or another, but that's just like the shower thing. But even beside that, there's those small things that I've seen and felt that made my heart race, before I reminded myself that it just isn't possible._

 _Ruby is an extremely friendly and talkative person when she's around me. I could chat with her for hours on end and enjoy every single second of it. Then there's the fact that she gets really cute when she is tired, even more so than she already is. I'm actually feeling my heart start to race now that I'm thinking about it._

 _But that's all part of the problem. She's so kind and friendly and inviting, yet no matter how much I want to spend time with her and show her how much I love her, I just can't. I keep losing sleep over these feelings that I have for her, I keep imagining that we'll be able to all different kinds of things that normal couples can do, and it's keeping me awake at night when I want to just got to bed and sleep the dreadful night away.  
_

 _Right now, I would love nothing more than to kiss her, sneak up to her room and snuggle up with her, go out on a date with her and hold her hand as we walk down the street, laugh all night as we talk until the sun comes up, but it just isn't possible. Ruby doesn't feel the same way as I do and to try and make this work would just result in my heart getting shattered beyond repair. It's already fragile enough as it is given what is going on in my life right now, if I were to lose Ruby as a friend, I don't know what I would do._

 _You know, some days I wonder if staying with Ruy and her family was the right decision._

 _I'm really grateful for this care and compassion from the Xiao Long-Rose family, and I don't want to leave or anything like that, but if I were to be living with a different friend, maybe my heart wouldn't feel like it's getting torn in half._

 _To be this close to everything you want, and unable to even make an attempt to reach it, it's the worst feeling in the world. Like I said earlier, I'm literally about 100 ft. away from her, I could easily go up there right now and snuggle up to her, but I can't. I can't do any of that because I"m scared of losing her and ending up alone._

 _If that means that I won't lose anyone else in my life and end up alone again, then I guess I have no choice but to give up this fantasy where Ruby and I find love and happiness together._

 _I just don't know if I can let go of how I feel, and to be honest, I don't know if I want to let go._

* * *

Once she finished up her journal entry, she closed the book and walked back over to the bed. She wanted to just sleep the night away now, and with all of these thoughts that were running through her head written down in the journal, maybe she would finally get the chance to sleep, even if she had another nightmare as a result.

In some way, writing out her feelings must have worked for her, because she felt exhausted. She had never truly touched on the subject of her feelings for Ruby, so they never got told to anyone and stayed bottled up inside. Maybe that's why she was losing sleep at night, but now that they were written out and expressed, she felt as if she could finally get the rest she so desired.

Turning off the light, she stumbled back over to her bed and fell down onto it in an effort to gain some more sleep, fortune shining down on her when she felt her body succumb to the sleep she so desperately needed.

* * *

 **AN: Alrighty, well that was certainly a chapter, and it gives us an insight into Pyrrha's mindset for the chapters to come, so just remember that because it's important to the story and the things that happen to her.**

 **Anyway, I don't know if I've done this yet, but I'm actually going to try and reply to all of the guest reviews that have come in throughout this story right now. If I've already covered your review before, then you get another one because I can't remember shit.**

 **Ch 1 Guest: Yeah, it was unexpected, but the whole plot of the story thus far has been one hell of a roller coaster.**

 **Ch 5 Guest (Palkia Nightfire): You really have no idea how happy I am that I'm pretty much the reason you got into Victory Rose. I know that it contains a lot of stuff that is hard to read (all of that prior stuff was hard enough for me to write out), but I'm glad you stuck it out and read up to this point and saw that it has been an incredible read because this has been incredible to write out and I've had so much fun doing so, and I've never felt as proud of my works as I am right now with this story.**

 **Ch 7 Guest: It only gets better from here, trust me.**

 **Ch 7 Guest (Yuki): I'm glad you have liked where it has been going so far, and hopefully you enjoy where it continues to go from here.**

 **Ch 8 Guest (1): Don't worry, we're past a lot of the truly angsty stuff, though there will still be plenty of feels to be had. It had to get bad before things really turned around for Pyrrha, so you'll start to see things look up from here (but again, it isn't without many feels moments).**

 **Ch 8 Guest (2): I'm really happy that you think this is a really well developed story. As I said to the prior guest review, while things are going to look up for Pyrrha, she isn't completely out of the feels woods yet, and there will still be plenty of moments where you will want to just give her a hug.**

 **Ok so that wraps up guest reviews for the first 8 chapters. If you are reviewing as a guest, then feel free to give yourself a name instead of just guest so that I can acknowledge your review in the chapter notes for the chapter after you write it out. I don't want your questions or comments to go unacknowledged.**

 **As always, thanks for stopping by and reading my shit, hopefully you enjoyed it and you can leave a review or follow/fave to keep up with this story. Thank you for tuning in and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	10. Keep Moving Forward

**AN: Ok, so this chapter is being updated a day early because this weekend and the week following are going to be absolute hell for me and I don't know if I would have the time to update it for tomorrow. Hope you enjoy because next week it goes back to being on Sunday.**

* * *

The following morning, Pyrrha woke up later than she usually did. Fortunately it was Sunday so she had nothing going on that she needed to be awake for in the first place. When she looked at the clock, Pyrrha groaned and felt as if it were going to be a bad day. Still, she slinked her way out of the bed and slowly meandered up to the kitchen, stopping only to take the pain medication she needed to take for her shoulder.. She wasn't fully awake yet by the time she walked out the door, but moving around would help her wake up and gather the strength she needed to get through the day.

As she reached the kitchen, Pyrrha heard Ruby and Yang chatting with each other about something. She really didn't pay much attention to it, her sole interest being the acquisition of a granola bar that she could take back to her room and eat while she worked on her writing.

"Hey, Pyrrha," Ruby called out eagerly when she saw the red head.

Pyrrha, upon hearing her name being called, turned to face towards the voice that called to her, and instead of a traditional hello, she was barely able to lift her arm and wave hello. Pyrrha was just too tired and out of energy and drive to really do anything at that moment, grabbing the granola bar she was looking for and returning back downstairs to her room and away all day long if possible.

Ruby, once she saw Pyrrha leave, felt really disheartened. She knew that Pyrrha was going through a really tough time in her life, but it still hurt to watch her barely acknowledge Ruby before sheltering herself within her room. Yang, for her part, tried to comfort Ruby and cheer her sister up.

"Hey, don't worry about that, Pyrrha just needs some time to wake up is all," Yang suggested. "In all honesty, she looked really tired, like she didn't get much sleep last night."

"I just wish there was something we could do to cheer her up though," Ruby responded. "I feel like everything we do isn't helping at all and that she's going through depression or something. I want to help her feel better."

"Don't worry about that Rubes," Yang said, pulling Ruby's attention and curiosity. "I've already got something that should put Pyrrha in a much better mood than she has been in these past few days." Yang pulled out her phone that second to check the time and see if she missed any messages, her eyes going wide when she realized that she was almost missing something important. "Speaking of which, it's time that I go out and get that thing for Pyrrha."

Yang jumped out of her chair and ran over to her room so she could get dressed. "I'll be back in an hour or two Ruby! Don't burn the house down while I'm gone!" Yang shouted to her sister before walking to the garage and driving her car away.

With Pyrrha in her own room, and Yang gone off to do whatever it was she was doing, Ruby slunk back over to her own room since she had no one else to spend the day with.

* * *

Later during the day, Pyrrha was much more awake and focused on what she was doing. Her writing was taking up the entirety of her thoughts right at that moment, all other thoughts that she had been dealing with off to the side.

" _The snow was caught up within the winds that swept across the barren wasteland. The flag that held the symbol of the wolves caught and thrown all around in the torrential gusts. Through all that though, the pack traversed the dangerous passes without fear, the Fallen Kell leading them onward._

 _'When the fallen sought to destroy us, I protected the reef. In the end, they all bowed before me.'_

 _As the Queen looked on from her throne, her thoughts were upon the cause of the sight before her. Bodies of the Awoken who defended the throne lie cold against the ground before the Queen, holes where the blasts that killed them littered throughout the dead._

 _'We showed them mercy, and offered them a home amongst the awoken. They met that mercy, with betrayal.'_

 _She knew exactly who was responsible for this atrocity, the sole group that was the cause of all this death to her people._

 _'Now, they will feel my wrath.'_

 _As the wolves continued across the snowy pass, far away from where the reef stood, they knew that there was no turning back. They were going to succeed in their endeavor or die trying, and they had made an enemy of the awoken._

 _"Open the reef to the Guardians!" The Queen proclaimed to her officers. "Offer the riches of our realm as bounty for these traitors! Let the hunt, begin!_ ""

It was what she was planning to use as the start of one of the shorter novels contained within the main series, the hunt for a specific house within the Fallen ranks. She had gotten the idea earlier that morning and thus wanted to write it out now that she had the chance to do so. With nothing to distract her though, her writing was a welcome relief from the troubles that had plagued her recently.

The sound of knocking on her bedroom door was a surprise though, but given whom she was living with, Pyrrha had an idea of who it could be. Only Ruby or Yang were around, their father went out to meet with Qrow in order to discuss work issues, so that narrowed down the choices of who it was. Once she reached the door, she found that it was Yang who had wanted her attention.

"You need something, Yang?" Pyrrha asked. Normally she wouldn't sound so agitated, but in her exhausted state, Pyrrha couldn't help it.

"Yeah, I want to show you something upstairs," Yang said, grabbing ahold of Pyrrha's good arm and practically dragging her up to the living room.

"Yang, there's no reason to rip my…arm…off," Pyrrha lost all train of thought once she saw what it was that Yang wanted to show her up in their living room. Standing there in the living room beside Ruby, was Pyrrha's cousin Blake. Pyrrha was surprised to say the least, she didn't know what to say to Yang or Ruby, the only two who could possibly set this event up for her.

Blake however, decided to take the opportunity to walk over to Pyrrha and give her a hug, which Pyrrha returned in kind. Once she was in the embrace, Pyrrha found herself smiling at the sight of her cousin.

"Hey, told you I'd get a ticket home to see you," Blake said, her voice much calmer than the last time the two cousins spoke to each other.

Once Pyrrha was out of the embrace, she finally got her brain to work right. "How did you get here? When did you get back? How did you know where to find me?"

Blake, in order to stop Pyrrha from rambling like a mad man, placed her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder so that the woman was calm. "Relax, you can thank your friend Yang here for extending the invitation. She picked me up from the airport about an hour ago and I've only been here for five minutes."

Pyrrha looked over to Yang, the sudden thought of whether Blake would be getting in trouble or not over this running through her head. "Don't worry Pyr, I already talked with Dad and Uncle Qrow about this and they gave me the ok so long as Blake remembers to keep some details confidential. Don't want anything bad to happen when we were trying to cheer you up," Yang informed Pyrrha after assuming that was what the red head was thinking about.

Upon confirmation that everything was done for her, Pyrrha smiled, and with a few tears of joy in her eyes, wrapped her arms around Blake once again. "It's so great to see you again," She whispered while in the embrace.

"Yeah, I'm actually here for a few days too," Blake replied. She then turned her attention towards Yang. "Speaking of which, we need to get my stuff into wherever it is that I'm sleeping, so let's get that done."

"Me and Ruby will take care of that, you two have some catching up to do," Yang responded before walking to the garage with Ruby behind her. "We'll throw your stuff in Pyrrha's room ok?"

"Sounds good, Yang," Pyrrha responded. "Just give me a second to get changed. I look terrible right now." Pyrrha referred to the fact that she was still wearing her pajamas and that she looked like a mess. "I should probably shower too while I'm at it."

"Might as well," Blake said. "Yang is letting us borrow her car for the day so that the two of us can go out."

"That's real sweet of her to do," Pyrrha replied as she lead Blake down to her room.

Once they reached the door, Pyrrha let them in and showed Blake around. It wasn't a big room by any standards, but for Pyrrha she was more than happy with it. "I know it's not much, but this is home for me now. I'm sure we'll find some space for you to sleep in here somewhere."

"Don't worry about it," Blake interjected. "I can take that couch out there if need be."

Seconds later, Yang popped into Pyrrha's room with Ruby following behind her. The two sisters dropped Blake's bags off in Pyrrha's room before heading back upstairs. Pyrrha grabbed her towel, a change of clothes and her shower stuff before walking upstairs to the bathroom to shower.

After she was done, Pyrrha returned to her room so she could put her belongings back in her room. For some reason, Pyrrha felt compelled to bring her journal with her while she was out with Blake, she thought that talking with her cousin would help her feel better about all that has been happening to her. With that all taken care of, she met outside Blake who was siting on the couch in the basement before the two of them went up to Yang's car so that they could go out together. Pyrrha noticed as she was walking up the stairs that this was the first time she had felt so happy for something in a while.

Once they got to the car, Pyrrha hopped into the driver seat, picking up the keys that Yang had left on her seat. She waited for Blake to get seated in the car as well before handing the journal off to her to hold while she drove. Once that was done she started up the car and drove out of the drive way.

"So, where do you want to go?" Blake asked.

"I don't know, I figured you would want to do something together," Pyrrha replied. The weather was lovely that afternoon, the leaves changing color and falling to the ground. Pyrrha loved this time of year, the colors of nature, the freshness in the air, it all felt right it felt wonderful. Since she was spending this time of year with her cousin, that just made it much better.

It gave her a feeling that things were going to be alright for her and that she would get past this in time.

"Well, why don't we go find someplace we can just talk?" Blake asked. "We don't get to do that much anymore, and especially now, I just wanted to catch up with you and see how you're doing."

Pyrrha figured that she would be speaking with Blake about this, which is why she brought the journal with her. There wasn't going to be any escaping this, but right now, she didn't want to escape talking about this. During the time that everything happened, Pyrrha found that talking about her feelings were better for her in the end. "Alright, I know of a place we can go to," Pyrrha mentioned.

The place Pyrrha was talking about was the courtyard of her high school. The school was a pretty high end school that was built to impress. Pyrrha was certainly surprised when she was given the chance to attend, but didn't question it. The courtyard Pyrrha was talking about was towards the middle of the school, accessible without having to go into the building and secluded enough for Pyrrha to feel safe speaking with Blake about her problems.

By the time they reached the school, Blake was starting to climb out of the car. She ended up placing the journal onto the seat, but stopped when Pyrrha spoke up. "You, might want to bring that with you," Pyrrha said, her voice losing drive as she went on. Realizing what Pyrrha meant by that, Blake kept a hold of the journal, even though she didn't fully understand the significance of the journal.

Walking into the courtyard, Blake could tell that Pyrrha was feeling pensive about everything. She couldn't even imagine what her cousin had gone through, but not matter what, she would be there for her cousin this entire time. By the time they reached a seat, Blake wanted to just give her cousin a hug. Soon afterwards, Pyrrha finally spoke up and broke the silence that had decided to settle in.

"I guess you want to know how things have been for me since it happened, don't you?" Pyrrha asked.

"You could say something like that I guess," Blake replied. "I just want to know that you're going to be alright."

Pyrrha faintly smiled when she heard her cousin's concern. "You know, up until recently, I wasn't really feeling as though things were going to look up for me." Pyrrha could tell that Blake was worried about her. "Despite that, driving over here, seeing how beautiful and lovely the world is around me right now, I just get this feeling of life. I have a feeling that things are going to turn out alright after all. Maybe that won't be right away, but I know it will happen at some point in time. I guess you could say that I'm ready to get some closure."

"I'm glad that things look like they're looking up for you," Blake said. She then looked down at Pyrrha's journal in her hands. "Why did you want me to bring this by the way?"

Pyrrha chuckled a bit and looked down at the ground. "One of the things that I've been doing to help me 'recover' from the experience that I've been through, was to write down my thoughts since I always seem to keep them bottled up to myself. Pretty much it's what I've been dealing with each day. Figured you could get a lot more from reading that than from me trying to talk about this more."

Blake took that as a prerogative to begin reading through the journal. Given how long Pyrrha had been using the journal, there weren't many entries, so Pyrrha didn't have long to wait before she heard Blake's response.

Unfortunately, Pyrrha also forgot about the last entry that she wrote, the only time she ever mentioned her love for Ruby.

"Pyrrha, you have a crush on Ruby?"

Hearing that, Pyrrha's face went red as her hair and she went wide eyed, silently hoped that Blake wouldn't think any differently of her. "I, uh…"

"I didn't realize that you swung that way," Blake said, rapidly blinking as a result of the revelation. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was worried that you wouldn't think of me the same," Pyrrha replied.

"What, do you think I'm dense?" Blake flatly said, her voice a low monotone.

"I-I-I er, I was just afraid," Pyrrha replied.

Blake always thought that Pyrrha was strong and determined, never the kind of person who was afraid of anything. She knew that Pyrrha went through a lot, but it was a tremendous surprise to her that her cousin, who was normally one of the strongest people she knew, afraid of something. Recent events have shown that there was a lot of things that Pyrrha was afraid of after all.

Blake gave her cousin a hug, being sure to be gentle since Pyrrha's shoulder was still in some pain. "I should feel insulted that you would think of me as dense as some of the many idiots of society," Blake said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "In all seriousness though, I love you and that isn't going to change. We're family and I'm not going to let the fact that you're a lesbian change that."

Hearing Blake flat out call her a lesbian wasn't what Pyrrha was expecting, and her face went absolutely red from embarrassment. "Oh dear god, Blake," Pyrrha complained. "Did you have to say that so bluntly?"

"Relax, I was just trying to lighten the mood," Blake said. By that point, Blake finally put together who it was that Pyrrha had a crush on. "Wait, isn't Ruby one of the two sisters that you're living with now?"

And there in lay the real problem for Pyrrha. Hearing that struck a chord in Pyrrha, remembering just what it was that she was having a problem with the most. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Does she know about that?" Blake asked.

"No, and I don't want her to know because I'm worried about losing her as a friend," Pyrrha replied. "I know you figure she should know, but I don't want to risk losing one of my closest friends, especially not after everything that has happened recently."

Blake, as much as she wanted to see Pyrrha succeed in love and in life, knew exactly why Pyrrha wasn't going to pursue that. "Ok, if that's what you feel is best."

Feeling much better about all of that, Pyrrha and Blake decided that they had spent enough time speaking about what had happened, and so they started to make their way out of the courtyard. They made their way out to the car and started to drive away. Blake did have one idea that she wanted to do before they went anywhere else, something she could only do while Pyrrha had the day off.

"You think it's alright if we stop by my parents house? I haven't told them that I'm in town and I think it would be unfair if I didn't stop by and say hello at least once," Blake requested.

"Sounds good to me," Pyrrha said. "Though, your parents will have to understand if I can't really talk with them much about what is going on in regards to my parents, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Blake conceded. "Mr. Xiao Long gave me a twenty minute speech on the importance of keeping where you are staying a secret, and that they are allowing me to visit you under good faith that I won't cause any more harm to you."

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at that. "Well, what can I say, that's Taiyang for you."

After a couple of laughs, Pyrrha was making her way over to Blake's house. It was a decently long drive, but not one that would really be out of the way. Given that Blake attended a different school than Pyrrha, it wasn't a surprise that she lived a bit far away. None the less, Pyrrha knew how to get to Blake's house on her own and made the journey in record time. They arrived at the house, leaving Yang's car parked in a parking lot nearby so that Blake's family didn't run the plates and find out where Pyrrha was staying at.

As soon as the two cousins reached the front door, they knocked on it since Blake thought it was unwise of her to just waltz right in unannounced. Seeing Blake's mother appear at the door was a wonderful sight, the surprised look on her face told Pyrrha and Blake that they really weren't expecting the two of them at all.

"Oh my god, Blake, Pyrrha, what are you two doing here? Blake when did you get back from France?" Blake's mother, Helena Belladonna, asked.

"I managed to get a week off to spend with Pyrrha," Blake said as she hugged her mom. "Figured it would be unfair if I didn't stop and say hello at least once."

"My word, it's so wonderful to see you sweetheart," Helena continued. "And Pyrrha, oh my goodness. You have no idea how happy I am to see your smiling face right now."

By that point Blake's mother had let go of Blake, only to squeeze the life out of Pyrrha. While under normal circumstances, Pyrrha would be fine with it, but she felt the pain in her arm and shoulder as soon as Helena wrapped her up in the embrace. It was with sheer willpower alone that she didn't scream out in pain.

"It's great to see you too Aunt Helena," Pyrrha winced as she was captured in the death hug.

Once Helena let go, she noticed Pyrrha reach over and grab her shoulder, a grimace on her face. "Oh my god please don't tell me I hurt you just now," Blake's mother panicked.

Hearing the panic in her aunt's voice, Pyrrha forgot about her pain and went to reassure that she was alright. "It's ok, just, remember that my shoulder isn't in the greatest of conditions is all."

"Given the circumstances I should've been more tempered than I just was," Helena explained. "It's just I'm surprised to see the two of you."

Helena let the two of them walk inside so that they didn't have to stand out in the doorway the entire time. Once they were in, she walked over to the living room with them, where Blake's father was currently.

"William, guess who popped over for a visit," Helena said to her husband.

Blake's father was a bit surprised at first, but once Blake and Pyrrha made their presence known, he immediately jumped up and cheered. "Hey, my beautiful daughter is home, and my just as beautiful niece is here as well! What a pleasant surprise!"

Blake nearly ran over to give her father a hug since she missed her family greatly. Pyrrha was just happy that she was able to spend time around people that cared for her. "It's great to see you too Uncle Will," Pyrrha said to her uncle as he held his daughter.

"What's the occasion?" William asked before turning to his daughter. "And how did you manage to get back home from France?"

"Let's just say that I worked things out between my teachers and the people that Pyrrha is staying with, and I figured that it wouldn't be fair if I was home and didn't stop by at least once," Blake chimed in.

"Come on, we're about to eat dinner in a few minutes, we can talk more over some food," Helena cut in. "I'm sure that there is so much for us to talk about."

Pyrrha was more than happy to have a meal cooked by her aunt. She had picked up the cooking habit a long time ago when they were kids, and while Pyrrha's father knew how to cook as well, Pyrrha probably learned more from her aunt than from her father, despite the two adults being brother and sister. She followed her aunt to the dining room and joined her cousin and Uncle at the table. By the time food was ready, Pyrrha was pretty darn hungry, and the look in her eyes told everyone that she was starving.

"I guess someone's really hungry," William said.

"You certainly said it," Helena replied, though she sounded a bit worried as she spoke. "You are getting a decent meal with these people that you're staying with, right?"

Before Pyrrha could take a bite, she heard the question, something she knew would happen. Still, she owed them at least some kind of explanation, even if she couldn't talk about much of the details.

"Well, it's not that they aren't providing the food for me, they gone well out of their way to help me feel comfortable in their home," Pyrrha began to explain. "It's just that, well, I haven't been as hungry as I normally would be. That's on me though, so you guys don't need to worry about whether the family that took me in is trying to help."

"Pyrrha, you can understand that we're worried about you, right?" Helena said. "Heck we don't even know who these people are, how are we supposed to trust them with your well being?"

"Mom," Blake interjected. "As much as Pyrrha would love to talk about this, there's a lot that she can't legally talk about for her safety, as well as the safety of the family who took her in. Hell I had to jump through about 20 hoops with the local police and CPS before I could get considered for spending time with my cousin. Trust me when I say this, she's in great hands."

"Alright, I guess that's all we can ask for," William said. He knew that they couldn't legally ask Pyrrha to tell them where she was staying, so it wasn't something he wanted to get into the middle of at that point anyway.

After a half hour of eating, talking and family time, most of the family was finished eating and just making conversation with each other. As they were laughing, the front door opened, and both Blake and Pyrrha were surprised by the suddenness of it. They heard footsteps coming towards the dining room, and once the new arrival appeared before them, Pyrrha's mind and body froze.

Her father had shown up at the house with them.

Everyone else knew that things could potentially be bad because of it, but while Pyrrha was frozen, she did notice one thing. Her father was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. "Pyrrha, w-what are you doing here?"

Pyrrha couldn't do anything, so Helena started to speak instead. "Art, we were just as surprised to see her appear as well, but she was here visiting with us alongside your niece since she was stateside for a week. I guess I forgot to mention that you were stopping by."

"Oh, well uh, I guess I'll just come back later today after-"

"Art, please," Helena cut off her brother. "Why don't you and Pyrrha just try to talk things out? Maybe you could fix this right here and right now."

"Lena, I don't think it works like that," Artemis retorted. He wasn't interested in doing this wrong, and unless he knew that things were done the right way, then he wouldn't let them happen. "We both know it's more complex than that."

"It's just a simple conversation though, what's the worst that could happen?" Helena rebuked.

"Helena's right," William mentioned. "This whole problem could be solved right now. Everyone here agrees, right Blake?"

"Hold on a second there, dad," Blake said. "Something like this isn't as easy as you make it out to be."

All of the conversation seemed to fade into the background for Pyrrha though. Internally, she was trying to organize her thoughts and regain her composure from the sudden development. After a few moments she finally made a decision on what to do, and while the Belladonna family was in the middle of bickering with each other, she stood up from the table.

"Excuse me," Pyrrha politely said before she walked out to the back of the house for some privacy. Once she was outside, Pyrrha reached into her pocket and picked up her phone, scrolling through the names until she reached the one in particular that she was looking for. Finding the person she wanted to call, Pyrrha only had to wait for an answer.

"Hey there, Pyrrha," Qrow said once he answered the phone. "Is everything alright?"

"Kinda," Pyrrha said a bit more timidly than she would have liked. "Look, I need some advice on something. Long story short, I went with my cousin to visit her parents since she was in town and felt it wouldn't be fair to not see them while she was around at least once. While we are here, my father shows up, to everyone's surprise including my father. My father was about to leave and come back at a later time when I wasn't around but now my aunt and uncle think that I should try talking to him and trying to explain things to him."

"Ok," Qrow replied. "So, given what you told me, what is it that you need advice on exactly?"

"Well, I don't know if I should try talking to him or not," Pyrrha continues. "Part of me knows that I shouldn't so that neither of us get into trouble, but at the same time, I want to try and fix this already so that I can move on. I don't know what I should do, and I figured you would know what to do better than I would. I don't want to get my father in trouble for this, to be honest neither of us could have predicted that we would run into each other so I don't want him to get in trouble."

After a few moments of pause, Qrow gave Pyrrha his answer. "Well, for the time being, it's better if you two didn't speak to each other just yet. There is a process that we are going through in order for something like this to happen properly, plus it can't just be a spontaneous decision. I won't let this get your father into trouble since it was out of either of your control, but I do need to speak with him for a minute or two. Afterwards, I would recommend coming home Pyrrha, just to be on the safe side, ok?"

"Alright, I'll bring the phone over to him now," Pyrrha replied before heading back inside. She made her way over to the dining room, where everyone is silently awaiting her return. Once she was there, Pyrrha walked over to her father and extended her hand out to him. She didn't need to say anything for her father to understand what it was that Pyrrha was trying to do. Once her father had the phone he walked towards the living room so that he could speak.

"Artemis Nikos here," Artemis said.

"Hello, this is Lieutenant Qrow Branwen, we've met before," Qrow said.

"Of course, what can I do for you sir?"

"I'm sure you're worried about what is going on right now, but don't worry, you aren't in trouble for something outside your control," Qrow started off with. "Pyrrha explained what happened and so you don't have to worry about that. However, I wanted to mention to you that despite members of your family saying otherwise, you shouldn't try to speak with Pyrrha and make amends just yet. Something like that needs time to set up, and we need to ensure that, for Pyrrha's safety of course, you are in a position where you can prove that you have earned the chance to speak with her. Besides that, CPS would need to be involved and bear witness to the entire thing, again, for Pyrrha's safety."

"Of course, as I have said I don't want to go about this the wrong way," Artemis said.

"Great," Qrow replied to Artemis' response. "It definitely helps that you are actively cooperating with us and with recent developments, I'm sure we'll be able to work something out in time. Usually the parents that we work with don't want to cooperate, so it's nice to see that you are willing to work for it."

"Alright, I won't take up any more of your time officer," Artemis said. "Do you need to speak with Pyrrha anymore?"

"No, I already told her what I needed to say," Qrow replied. "You have a good evening now."

With the conversation over, Artemis returned to the dining room, placing Pyrrha's phone onto the table so that she could grab it herself. "I'm probably gonna go out for a bit so that I don't cause any trouble."

"No, that's not necessary," Pyrrha interjected. "I actually needed to get going soon anyway, got school work to study for." She stood up and gave her aunt an uncle a hug each. "Uncle Will, Aunt Helena, it was really great to see you guys again." Pyrrha looked over to her father, and while she didn't say a word, the look on her face was enough for her father to understand what she was doing. She was pretty much saying goodbye to him without saying goodbye out loud, since she couldn't actually say it.

Pyrrha walked out to the front of the house and waited for Blake, who was taking much longer to say goodbye than Pyrrha did. Pyrrha didn't blame her though since Blake hadn't seen her parents in a long time. Plus she could actually say more to them than Pyrrha could anyway, so Pyrrha didn't mind the wait. It gave her a chance to think over what happened and process how she felt about it.

By the time Blake made her way outside, Pyrrha was ready to head home. It certainly had been an interesting day for her, both filled with all different kinds of thoughts and feelings. Somehow, despite all that, she still felt like things would start to pick up for her from there.

She just had to have a little bit of hope.

* * *

 **AN: Anyway, I officially have a collaboration that I'm working on titled "Room 205". Give it a read and feast upon the insanity that is the giant collaboration.**

 **Other than that, I hope you guys enjoy this weeks chapter, it wasn't originally supposed to be as long as it was but once I wrote it out the chapter ended up turning out to be as long as it did, what can I say.**

 **To Cassiel: Yeah, I hope you enjoy what's coming, because things just get better from here.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the fic, feel free to review/follow/fave and I thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my work.**


	11. A Ray of Sunshine

It had been some time since Blake had visited Pyrrha. Months had passed, the seasons had changed,holidays had come and gone, the snow had rested on the ground for quite some time now. Blake and Ren both returned from their studies across the world to rejoin their friends and family, but for Pyrrha, she was excited for what had recently started up for her. It was one of her favorite times of the year because she got to do one of the things that she enjoyed the most.

Softball season had gotten started for Pyrrha recently, and that meant she was about to start a new season that she was sure would be one she would never forget. Softball had always been a critical part of Pyrrha's life, a way to escape from her parents before she left home. Now that she was already out and on her own, Pyrrha was more than excited to get the season underway.

Practices were mostly conducted indoors due to the weather outside, but Pyrrha didn't mind that. Until the winter weather went away, practices were mostly a chance for Pyrrha to test the strength in her shoulder and ensure that it was back to full strength. She knew that this was the best way to test herself, see if there was any lingering damage in her arm from what had happened months ago.

Pyrrha still took extra care at practices, and she even started to go into the school early to make sure her arm was up to par, taking an hour or two before classes to work in the cages and make sure her swing was right where she wanted it to be. Those moments were nice since it gave Pyrrha a chance to get her blood running so that she could clear her mind when school started for the day.

Still, she knew that there was some residual damage left over in her shoulder and arm, and often times she would have to stop by the nurse after practice at the end of the day so he could give her some ice to rest her arm. Every time she went to him though, she kept things private so that no one would see her while she was still hurt from before.

Physically, she was recovering pretty nicely, though she felt as though she could be better. Her arm and shoulder still hurt from time to time, but she felt as if she could handle it. Mentally, she was able to control her thoughts with some exercise before and after school, so for the majority of her day, she didn't feel any thoughts creeping into her mind. Unfortunately, she still had the nightmares to deal with, though not as often as before, and as much as she wanted to get rid of them, she knew it would probably be a long time still until they were finally expelled from her mind permanently.

Despite her best efforts though, there was a small rumor going around the school that Pyrrha had somehow hurt herself during the off season, but most people were quick to claim that it wasn't true given how Pyrrha didn't seem to show any signs of injury at any point in time. Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh any time she heard the rumors from either Weiss or Yang, people were so quick to dismiss them as nothing after all.

But, for Pyrrha, all of this was a nice change in scenery for her. A way to get her mind off of the real problems that were going on with her. And she didn't mind having the opportunity to get away from those problems, not at all.

Yang often had to pick Pyrrha up after practice so that Pyrrha didn't have to walk back to the Xiao Long household alone. Yang didn't mind though, it gave her a chance to check on Pyrrha in a place where Pyrrha had the privacy to do so. Today though, Yang noticed that Pyrrha had an ice pack wrapped up next to her arm, giving her the idea that she put too much stress onto it during practice.

"Yikes, how bad is the damage?"

"Just over worked it is all," Pyrrha replied. "Don't worry about it, I should be fine by tomorrow morning."

"If you say so," Yang shrugged as she drove the two of them home.

Pyrrha had gotten accustomed to living with Yang and Ruby by that point, it was almost as if that was her home now. The thought was a wonderful gift to Pyrrha, realizing a long time ago that she finally found a place that she could truly call home.

By the time they reached home, Pyrrha wanted to just sit down and relax for a bit. She came out of her room more often after a while, slowly and surely opening up to the world once again. Yang opened up the garage door, but noticed that her Uncle Qrow's car was in the driveway. Pyrrha noticed too and began to wonder what was going on. Once they squeezed by his car and Yang parked in her normal spot, they got out of the car. Pyrrha walked with Yang over to the living room, instead of running straight to her room in order to drop her stuff off. She left her softball bag by the basement door though, as she would grab it in the morning before school once again.

As they walked into the living room, they saw Qrow speaking with Taiyang and Ruby, a fully animated conversation taking place between the three of them. When Pyrrha and Yang walked in, the three of them turned to see them, and they immediately noticed the ice pack wrapped around Pyrrha's shoulder.

"You alright there kiddo?" Taiyang asked. He knew that Pyrrha was tough, but as a parent, it wasn't like he could help it when he looked out for her well being.

"Just a little sore, I probably overworked it today during practice," Pyrrha replied. "I'll be fine, but I appreciate the concern."

"Alright, if you say so," Taiyang said. "Actually, there's some good news that Qrow has for you Pyrrha."

By that point, Pyrrha was interested in what Qrow had to say to her. Somehow she knew that it would be related to her case, but if it was good news then that meant something went right after all. "Ok?" Pyrrha said as she dropped her bag alongside of the armchair and took a seat. Yang joined Ruby on the couch and everyone was waiting on the edge of their seat for what Qrow had to say.

"Well, I think it's safe to say that you'll be happy by this most recent development," Qrow started to say. "Pyrrha Nikos, it brings me great joy to tell you that your mother no longer has any custody rights to you, and that she is now permanently barred from contact with you whatsoever."

It was a godsend to Pyrrha, she finally escaped her mom and the torture that she had inflicted on her. No longer would she be haunted by the fear that her mother would come after her, no longer would she face that witch ever again. She was finally free.

Yang and Ruby shot up and ran over to give Pyrrha a hug, the sisters were beyond ecstatic for their close friend. Their cheers of joy were loud, but Pyrrha didn't mind, she was feeling wonderful herself. Pyrrha nearly felt tears form in her eyes after hearing the news.

"I'm not finished yet though," Qrow said, cutting through the joyful screams from his nieces. "Not only are you free from her, but she was arrested this morning on multiple charges and will be spending a long time behind bars. No matter what you do with your life, you, your future family, none of them will ever have to bear with that terrible woman ever."

Pyrrha just couldn't get enough from all of this great news. Not only was she free of her mother, but she was going to pay for what she did. After hearing that, she started to cry, joyful tears rolling down her face.

"Even better," Qrow continued despite everyone once again returning to celebration. "Taiyang has officially filed all the paperwork needed for you to be officially adopted into our family."

That was it, Pyrrha couldn't contain herself anymore. She was extremely grateful for all the work that Taiyang and Qrow had put in, and she couldn't be happier with their results. Pyrrha stood up and walked over to Taiyang, pulling him into a hug and crying into his shoulder, mumbling thanks into his shirt. Taiyang held her as she let the emotions out, everything that she had heard only added onto her excitement and joy.

But then there was one thought that Pyrrha had, and she pulled away from Taiyang and turned to Qrow. "Wait, you said my mother had no more rights, but, what about my father?"

Both Ruby and Yang were wondering that themselves now that Pyrrha brought it up. Qrow figured that Pyrrha would ask about him, and he was at least glad that he had something to say about that as well.

"Well, with all that he has done to work with us, some of which I can't get into right now," Qrow explained. "We have agreed to give your father a chance to reconnect with you."

That surprised Pyrrha more than anything else at that point. "Wait, really? What happened that allowed that to happen?"

"Well, all that I can say right now is he has been doing everything he can and beyond that to work with us and help to provide you with the best possible chance of success, even when he knew that he probably wouldn't gain much in return," Qrow replied. "As for the meeting itself, I will be there to ensure that all goes well, even though I'm pretty sure that nothing untoward would happen to you. In fact, I'm pretty sure you'll be happy with how the meeting turns out."

Pyrrha had thought back to when Blake visited from France. She had run into her father and as much as she wanted to talk, she didn't know if she should, hence why she was unsure of what she should do and why she called Qrow for advice. Still, she had wondered if it was a good idea to go through with this.

"Are you sure that it's a good idea? I trust what you're saying, but I don't want to end up getting hurt again," Pyrrha said.

"Understandable, but if it helps, I wouldn't be allowing this if I didn't think it would be helpful in any way," Qrow mentioned. "He isn't going to change the fact that you're now a member of the Xiao Long-Rose Family, and he actually doesn't want to change that. However from what he says he just wants to be a part of your life, something he said that he wishes he realized before you left."

Hearing about how her father wanted to make amends gave Pyrrha some mixed feelings. On the one hand she wanted to believe that he was staying true to his word and working to make things right. But on the other, Pyrrha knew from experience that her father often let her down when he made promises to her, often found in a drunken stupor by the time she made it back home from her softball games when he promised to be there alongside many other important events that he missed in her life.

"If it helps, the meeting with him isn't until next week so you have time to figure out what it is that you want to say to him," Qrow continued. "Don't feel as if you have to come up with something right now, but give it some thought and go in with an open mind. You'd be surprised at what you could find out."

Pyrrha nodded and gave Qrow, now her Uncle, a smile. She then walked over to him and gave him a hug, thanking him for all of the work that he did to help her along. Pyrrha then grabbed her bag and ran her stuff downstairs and changed into her pajamas before she went to rejoin her family for dinner.

While she was down there, she noticed that there was a lot that had changed for her. Time had healed the scars she carried around for a long time, both physically and mentally. The bruises on her arm had faded long ago, and her collarbone and rotator cuff eventually repaired themselves. Her attitude had changed dramatically, and she often found herself smiling more than ever before in recent days.

The memories of her living hell had faded and were replaced with ones filled with friends and laughter. She had a much better lookout on life, her attitude was at an all time high, and she knew it was because of her friends and family that had stood with her when she needed her the most. Now she could feel as though she could go on with her life and reach towards new heights and new goals, all thanks to the people that cared.

* * *

 **AN: D'aw, we have some fluffy feels and things are starting to look up for Pyrrha. She is now a member of the Xiao Long household, and her mother no long is capable of having any sort of connection with her whatsoever since she no longer has the right to be her mother.**

 **Let's see how long this lasts...**

 **Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoyed reading this chapter, sorry it's a few hours late, I was asleep by the time I normally post this comes around and so hopefully you guys forgive me for that.**

 **Also, check out this collaboration I'm doing on my page called Room 205. It's well worth the read, trust me.**

 **Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to follow/fave and please leave a review on what you think of this. Feedback is good for me and gives me good feelings about what I'm working on. Thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you have a great day!**


	12. Dream Awakening

**AN: Merry Christmas.**

* * *

Despite how well her day had gone, Pyrrha just knew without having to say anything at all that the night wouldn't go as well. Things were looking too good for it to stay like this any longer than a few hours. Part of it was her fears coming to haunt her continuously, even though she knew that they weren't going to come true, but the thing about fears is that they can't truly be explained, and it's nigh impossible to eradicate them.

Unfortunately for Pyrrha, she was right in one regard. That evening, after having such good news for once in her life, she had one of the worst nightmares she had ever experienced. The thing with this one was that it wasn't just her that was being hurt, but this time, Ruby was hurt as well. Pyrrha was hurt by her's mother come to kill them for doing what they did, and when Ruby stepped in to try and stop it, it only caused Pyrrha's mother to take her anger out on her, and Pyrrha could do nothing but watch as her mother slowly sapped the life away from Ruby.

" _Ruby! No no no you can't be gone, no"_ Pyrrha said within her dream as she held Ruby. " _You can't just leave me like this, I haven't had the chance to tell you that I love you. Please don't go, don't go!"_

By the time Pyrrha woke up from her dream, she jolted up with a yelp. Sweat was liberally coating her face and chest, and she felt her heart pulsing thunderously, her eyes wide and her breaths ragged. Once she realized where she was, Pyrrha nearly broke down in tears, recalling what her dream was about. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. Her eyes closed as the sting of her tears hurt her, and she felt what came out travel down her cheek. This had probably been one of the worst dreams that she had in a long time, to see the woman she had come to love being hurt in such a way, and being unable to do anything to stop it from going on. Pyrrha wanted to cry out in agony, to crawl up to Ruby and hold her tight as she rested her head on Ruby's chest to hear the beating of her heart.

But she couldn't do that, and that's what hurt her even more.

Pyrrha didn't bother to look at the time, she wasn't going back to sleep any time soon. She would wait until her alarm went off, hoping that by the time that happened, she would have a chance to recover. But somehow, she just knew it wouldn't work out like that.

A sudden knock on the door confirmed her last thought. Pyrrha looked up at the door, pondering who it could be exactly, but a small quiet voice behind the door gave her the answer she sought.

"Pyrrha? Can I come in?"

It was Ruby, Pyrrha could tell by the way she spoke, softly and full of comfort. Pyrrha wanted to call out to her and tell her she could come in, but something stopped her from moving, from saying anything. After a few moments of pause, she realized that she didn't need to do anything in the end. Ruby took the silence as a chance to open up her door quietly, and she saw Ruby peek inside. Once Ruby saw that she was awake, she came in, turned on a light and then walked over to sit right beside Pyrrha.

"You ok? I heard you scream and that got me worried," Ruby said as she wrapped her arms around Pyrrha and hugged her. Ruby didn't need to see the tears in Pyrrha's eyes to know that her friend had just went through a hard ordeal.

"I-it's nothing," Pyrrha mumbled. "Just a bad dream."

"I don't think it was just a bad dream," Ruby replied, she was very intuitive right now given how early in the morning it was. "Most bad dreams don't have you screaming pretty loudly at five in the morning."

Pyrrha, for her part, wanted to talk about what had happened. She was only worried that it would lead to other things being revealed as well, things that she felt were better left unsaid for the sake of their friendship.

"Why don't you tell me what the dream was about?" Ruby asked, noticing the silence coming from Pyrrha.

Pyrrha looked up at Ruby, those silver eyes drawing her in. She was mere inches away from kissing her, but yet she couldn't take the chance and move in. Instead she took a much safer approach to it, wrapping her arms around Ruby and holding onto her as tight as she could, crying into the crook of her shoulder. Ruby, for her part, was a bit surprised at first, but she didn't want it to stop either. She wanted to help Pyrrha through this, and as such, would be willing to do just about anything to let that happen.

Eventually, Pyrrha finally found her voice, and she was ready to tell her about the dream she had, now that Pyrrha had found herself relaxed in Ruby's arms. "It was about my mother."

Pyrrha didn't even say anything else for a moment there, she didn't need to for Ruby to understand just where this was going. Pyrrha felt Ruby tighten her grip around her, and it gave her a bit of comfort, to know that her crush was this concerned about her well being.

"She, she was hurting me, and I was feeling afraid," Pyrrha continued. "But, then something happened, and..."

Ruby was left in suspense, for Pyrrha felt a fresh wave of tears assault her. She could feel the wetness in her shirt start to build as Pyrrha cried into her shoulder. Ruby decided that she would wait for Pyrrha to go on when she was ready, she couldn't rush her when Pyrrha was in the state that she was. After letting Pyrrha cry for a few moments, the red head eventually calmed down and continued with her nightmare.

"And then you got involved, and that got my mother mad so she started to hurt you to, and I felt like I couldn't do anything and it hurt, oh god it hurt so bad being forced to just watch as she hurt you. I couldn't do anything to stop it and it killed me inside because I..." Pyrrha was so close to spilling her deepest secret, and in that split second before she did, she realized what she was about to say and stopped herself.

Ruby was torn. She knew that when Pyrrha mentioned how she was involved that it was really bad. Pyrrha and Ruby were always really close with each other, so Ruby knew that this was really hard for Pyrrha to talk about. But Ruby could tell that Pyrrha was holding something back. If there was anything she learned recently, she learned that there are times when Pyrrha keeps some things to herself so that she doesn't feel like she is going to shatter. She hides herself, and certain parts of herself so that she doesn't break.

Right then and there, Ruby knew that Pyrrha wasn't telling her something, and it clearly had some part in this nightmare of hers. She hated how Pyrrha kept things to herself, and while she understood why Pyrrha did, Ruby wished more than anything that Pyrrha could find it in herself to open up and share everything with her, without having to feel like she didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Pyrrha?"

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"What aren't you telling me exactly?"

Hearing Ruby ask her about that, it surprised her and worried her. Ruby was catching on to her feelings, maybe not that specifically, but Ruby knows that she was hiding something from her. "Ruby, please, can we not do this now?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well when else would we do this?" Ruby asked back. "I really don't want to do this to you, Pyrrha, not after what you went through, but I want to help you feel better. I want to help you get to the point where these nightmares no longer happen, and I can't do that if you are keeping secrets from me."

"I'm not keeping anything from you though," Pyrrha replied. It was a lie and she knew it of course, but somehow, she figured Ruby would realize that now too.

"Pyrrha, why do you keep doing this?" Ruby inquired. "You hid the fact that your mother was hurting you, and when I finally found out, it was because you were thrown into a state of total chaos, and it hurt to see you like that. I couldn't stand seeing you like that and I felt like I had failed you that entire time, Yang did too. Now that you're hiding something else from me, I feel like I'm still failing you because you don't feel safe enough to talk with me about it, when all I'm trying to do is help."

"It's not that Ruby, it's just..." Pyrrha trailed off.

"It's just what? What is it exactly that you can't tell me?" Ruby pleaded with Pyrrha for an answer. At some point, Pyrrha knew she would have to tell her, but with what was going on, she had hoped she would have more time to feel ready to do so. "Why can't you tell me what it is that is hurting you right now?"

"Because it's you!"

That was all it took to force a very still silence to form between them. Pyrrha could hear her heart racing, she knew that now she had no choice, so she was steeling herself as best she could for the moment she tells Ruby her last secret, even while tears rolled down her cheeks in full force. Eventually the silence was broken when Ruby finally spoke up, even a hushed whisper being loud in the silence.

"It's me?"

Pyrrha took a deep breath, she knew she had to tell Ruby now, else she would only make Ruby feel guilty over what she had already said. "Kind of, most of it is from me though, but if you knew what it was about then you could understand why I couldn't tell you about it."

Pyrrha looked down, listening to her heart beat even faster than before. Looking back up at Ruby, who was waiting on her every word, Pyrrha knew that it was time. "The truth is Ruby, the reason I haven't told you about this is because it revolves around you. It's not anything you did, or anything that you could control, it's mostly coming from myself. So please don't feel like you're responsible for any of this, it's not your fault that I went and fell in love with you."

Out of the corner of her eye, Pyrrha could see Ruby's eyes widen, her body freeze up at what she had just heard. Pyrrha figured that Ruby wasn't expecting to hear that kind of response, she wasn't ready to hear about how her best friend had a crush on her and had fallen in love with her. Pyrrha knew that Ruby didn't know how to react to hearing something like that, and thus the girl just sat there, frozen and unable to do anything.

Pyrrha, after waiting for a few minutes, knew that this was a bad idea and that she shouldn't have said anything about it at all. She closed her eyes and let the tears fall down as she stood up from her bed and grabbed a change of clothes for the day. Ruby, for better or for worse, did nothing at all. She was too lost in thought, trying to process what she had just heard Pyrrha tell her, to do anything to stop Pyrrha.

With a change of clothes, Pyrrha walked out of the room for a moment and got changed in the basement, since Ruby was in her room already. Once she finished, Pyrrha threw her pajamas back in, grabbed her bag and walked up the stairs to the living room. Once she got up there, she saw Taiyang getting ready for work. She figured that it would be best to tell him where she was going, since she actually had a place in mind.

"You're up awfully early," Taiyang said.

"I'm heading over to the school," Pyrrha said. She had done well to hide the tear stains, but her face was still red from the crying.

"Is everything ok? You look like you had a rough night," Taiyang asked her, ignoring what she had just said.

"I'm fine, I just," Pyrrha paused, keeping her emotions from spilling all over again. "I just need some time to myself, and so I was gonna walk to the school and get some time at the batting cages before school starts. I've done this before so you don't need to worry about me, I'll be fine."

Taiyang, for his part, wanted to be sure that she would be alright. Despite that, something told him that this was something that he couldn't change, and that he should just let her do this. "Alright, just be safe ok? You text me the second you get to the school and for the love of god don't get yourself hurt ok? You promise?"

"I promise," Pyrrha said before walking into the garage and grabbing her softball bag. Once she had that she walked out the door and started to make her way over to the school.

The journey itself was long and gave Pyrrha time to think about all that just happened. Deep down, Pyrrha felt as though she was just going to get heartbroken all over again, this time on a much larger scale, now that Ruby knew the truth of her feelings. Pyrrha just hoped that Ruby wouldn't feel as though it was all her fault, when the truth was that Pyrrha didn't blame her one bit.

The walk itself did nothing to calm Pyrrha's mind, and by the time she got to the school, she was still feeling a tsunami of texting Taiyang to let him know that she made it safely, she took a deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts. Walking up to the doors, she noticed the janitor doing a last minute check of the floors before opening the doors for the day. Pyrrha walked over and knocked on the door, signifying her presence. Since she had done this on many occasions before, the janitor had let her in without any hesitation, and he walked with her over to the softball practice area where the batting cages were.

Once she was there, Pyrrha turned the machinery on and got changed into her practice outfit, before stepping into the cages in an effort to clear her mind from all that had just happened.

* * *

 **AN: And, now we get to dive more into the romance of this story...or the problems Pyrrha will face as a part of it. I really couldn't wait for this moment because of how important it is, but man, Pyrrha just can't catch a break, can she?**

 **Personally speaking, I wanted to have this be longer and more fleshed out, but I honestly didn't know how to go about doing that (if you guys have any way of doing so please feel free to tell me and I'll try to edit this and add onto it at a later time).**

 **To the Guest Review from last chapter: I honestly couldn't help but laugh at the irony of your suggestion. I get what you were saying, but I had up to chapter 18 written out since around chapter 6 or 7, so I knew when the romance was going to start coming into play. It's especially funny that you asked for more romance, the chapter right before I really start to get into that.**

 **Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this little christmas nugget I left for you guys. Reviews are very much appreciated, as are faves and follows, and thank you for reading!**


	13. Real Love?

*Crack*

The sounds of metal making contact with the softballs that were being thrown towards Pyrrha resonated all around the room, only interrupted by every time the machine chucked out another one her way. It had been like that for quite a while up till that point, and Pyrrha wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

*Crack*

Unfortunately for her, that plan wasn't going to last much longer since she had school to attend to. Even she couldn't get out of her classes if she wanted to, not for any reason. And with all the time she spent in the cage, swinging over and over again, Pyrrha knew that school was going to start really soon. Knowing she was near the end, she took one final swing as hard as she could.

*Crack*

The hit, as hard as it sounded, had quite a bit of power behind it, but it also put quite a strain on Pyrrha's body. As she finished her swing, she felt a sudden flare of pain course through her shoulder and she found it hard to move. Pyrrha grasped at it before walking out of the cage and over to her stuff. She brought everything over to the locker room and ran the shower real quick, standing under the water briefly to wipe the sweat off of her body. Drying off quickly, Pyrrha then got changed into her normal school outfit, before walking over to the nurses office.

Pyrrha had gone to the school early for one reason, to try and take her mind off of what she felt was a mistake. Unfortunately for her, the extra effort had done nothing to quell her mind, and in fact, had only served to possibly cause her more harm. She still couldn't get her mind off of Ruby, and of what she told her, how she just sat there, not making any sort of movements whatsoever, all throughout the practice, she kept thinking about how she ruined their friendship, taking her frustrations towards herself out on the softballs. The act only served to bring about even more frustration as she knew it wasn't going to help her at all this time.

By the time she reached the nurse, Pyrrha noticed that people were slowly starting to make their way into the building. No one seemed to pay her any mind though, and she slipped into the office with relative ease. Shutting the door behind her, Pyrrha started to walk towards the nurse just as he looked in her direction.

"You're here awfully early, Miss Nikos," The nurse, Mr. Haywood mentioned. "Is your shoulder still bothering you from last night?"

"Actually," Pyrrha held her arm, shying away from looking right at him. "I kinda got in early and spent some time in the cages."

Mr. Haywood sighed as stood up from his chair. He could just tell that Pyrrha had done something to make her shoulder feel worse. "Come on, I'll take a look at it really quick before classes start."

Pyrrha followed him over to the back and let her bag drop to the floor. She lifted her left arm, wincing as she did. Mr. Haywood took note of that and started to examine her shoulder, looking for any signs of damage. It took about five minutes before the nurse had anything to say about her shoulder.

"Well, the good news is that there doesn't seem to be any major damage," Mr. Haywood said. "However, all of the stress that you have been putting on it is causing your muscles to tighten up and lock. What I recommend is that you get some rest, and I mean it this time. No practicing today, and I'm telling the coach not to let you practice because of your shoulder."

Pyrrha wasn't looking forward to that, but it wasn't like she had a choice. "Alright, I guess all I can do is just bear with it till it feels better?"

"Yeah, that's about it," Mr. Haywood replied. "I'll give you some muscle relaxants to help the process along, but if you keep overworking your arm when it isn't ready, then you won't be getting back in shape any time soon. So please, take a break today."

"Ok," Pyrrha replied. She picked up her bag and walked with him back out to the main office room, thankful that no one was there to see her. She watched as he walked over to a cabinet and pulling out a bottle. He opened it up and pulled a few capsules out, before giving them to Pyrrha for her to take. "Thanks."

Once Pyrrha downed the medication, she walked out of the office, the rest of her day looking like a downright struggle for her to bear with.

* * *

By the time she reached lunch, Pyrrha was all but miserable. She failed to focus during the entirety of her day, and as a result, her mood just got lower and lower. She didn't want to feel this way, but with what happened the night before, she felt like there wasn't much that could be done to cheer her up at that point. Not even a highly animated conversation going on right in front of her was enough to get her to focus.

Pyrrha looked across the table over at Ruby, and from what she could tell, Ruby looked just as miserable as she did. While she couldn't read Ruby's thoughts, Pyrrha hoped that her friend was thinking about what happened, and how they could fix it, much like Pyrrha was. Once Ruby looked in her direction however, Pyrrha turned away and looked at something else so that Ruby didn't notice that she was staring at her.

"Yo, Pyrrha."

Somehow Pyrrha managed to hear that, though it didn't help that Yang, who happened to be calling out to her, decided to poke her side repeatedly until she looked over. For some reason, having Yang do that frustrated Pyrrha, mostly because she wanted to be left alone, but partially because she didn't want to be poked repeatedly for no real reason.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Yang asked once she had Pyrrha's attention.

Pyrrha took a moment to calm herself before responding to Yang, she didn't need to take her problems out on someone who wasn't even involved. "Sure, what do you need?"

Instead of saying anything right away, Yang stood up and grabbed Pyrrha by the wrist. The blonde led Pyrrha down the hallway towards an empty classroom, though Pyrrha didn't know why she was practically being dragged there.

Once the two of them were inside, Yang finally spoke up. "Ok, what's going on, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha was confused, she didn't know why Yang had decided to drag her into an empty room just to have a conversation that they could have had at the table. "What? Why would there be anything going on?"

"Well for starters, you walked to school on your own today," Yang listed. "You haven't been able to focus on anything that was going on, trust me I know. Not only that, you look like someone kicked Zwei right in front of you. Everyone is worried about you, and we can all tell that something is going on with you."

"Yang," Pyrrha replied, lifting her hand to her forehead. "There's nothing going on. I appreciate the concern, but right now I just can't seem to focus. I was hoping some early practice would help but I guess it didn't."

Yang, from what Pyrrha could tell, looked like she didn't believe a word Pyrrha said, not that Pyrrha would say that she was wrong for feeling that way. Somehow, Pyrrha just knew that Yang would keep going on about it though, so she just had to make sure that Yang stopped worrying about her mistake.

"You finally told Ruby you're in love with her, didn't you?"

Pyrrha didn't know what to say. Yang had just asked if she finally told Ruby that she loved her, and Pyrrha didn't know what to say. Her jaw dropped, letting her mouth hang open, and her eyes grew wide with surprise. Yang shouldn't have known about her crush, so how did the blonde know of her secret.

"How did you know?" Pyrrha asked with a hint of panic.

"No offense, but that wasn't something you hid well from me," Yang said. "Once you moved in, I started to notice the little things you do when Ruby is around. How you sometimes move closer to her when you're on the couch, the way you look at her, how just being around Ruby seems to just take your breath away. I know you hid the whole thing with your parents really well, but with this, I saw the little signs and managed to put it together this time."

Pyrrha thought back, thinking of times when Yang could have noticed those little signs, and it turns out Yang was right, she did do those things subconsciously. She was shocked at how obvious she had been, who else knew about her secret.

"Nora, Ren, Sun, Neptune, Penny, hell even Jaune, they all started to pick up on the hints too, and we're all wondering why you haven't said anything to Ruby yet," Yang continued.

"What?" It was all Pyrrha could say. Her friends knew of her crush, but they wanted for her to actually say something to Ruby.

"Yeah, honestly, it's about damn time you told her how you feel," Yang went on.

By that point, Pyrrha had given up on keeping it all hidden. She was mad at Yang for bringing this up, she was mad at herself for making this mistake in the first place, she was mad that things turned out the way they did. This time, she didn't hold back her problems.

"About damn time? About damn time?! That's what you think of this?!" Pyrrha yelled.

"Whoa, calm down," Yang said.

"No, you have no idea what I've been going through lately because of this!" Pyrrha went on. "Every single day, staying with you and Ruby, and all the time I had to keep holding back because of how I felt! Every night, going to be thinking about how much I wanted to just walk up the stairs and spend the entire night up with Ruby, staying close to her, yet knowing that it was something that I could never reach for! You don't know what it's like to have to give up your own happiness, just so that your heart doesn't get shatter again!"

"Pyrrha, easy there, take a deep breath," Yang replied softly, gently grasping Pyrrha's arms, only to have Pyrrha violently throw Yang's hands off of her.

"No don't, don't try to tell me that everything will be alright, because it won't!" Pyrrha said. She was starting to lose steam, all the anger she felt in that moment slowly dissipating from her body. "Don't tell me, that it'll work out. I'll just be broken again."

By that point, Pyrrha's legs were shaking and she nearly fell over when they gave out on her, if it weren't for Yang quickly grabbing her and helping her stay upright. Pyrrha let her head rest in the crook of Yang's neck, a feeling of exhaustion and guilt wearing her down. She no longer had any tears to shed, but if she did, Pyrrha assumed that they would be running through her right now.

"I'm sorry, Yang," Pyrrha whispered. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Hey, easy there Pyr," Yang cooed. "I don't blame you for getting mad. I'd rather you say everything that needed to be said rather than keeping it in. I know you don't mean any of the hurtful things you said, so please don't get mad at yourself."

Pyrrha simply decided to nod in response, her throat felt raw from the screaming that she did moments ago. After feeling her strength come back to her, Pyrrha stood up on her own and looked at Yang.

"Feel better?" Yang asked, earning another nod from Pyrrha. "Good. Can I ask you something without you going all She-Hulk on me?" Once Pyrrha gave Yang the go ahead, Yang took a moment to think about how she wanted to phrase her question. "Do you really want to be with Ruby? Do you want to start a relationship with her? I want you to tell me in just a yes or a no, based solely on how you feel for her. Leave all these worries behind and just say yes or no."

Pyrrha, with all of the thoughts that had caused her to doubt the possibility of a relationship pulled away, knew what she wanted with Ruby. "Yes," She replied, her voice sounding grated and weak.

"Then just do it," Yang encouraged. She wrapped Pyrrha up in a hug to help her feel better. "You know that even if Ruby were to say no, you two would stay friends no matter what. It may seem like her saying no would break you apart, and while you may feel like that for a little bit, you know that it won't last, and everyone of your friends, including Ruby, would go well out of their way to help you. So please, just go and talk to her about this already, you two do look cute together."

Pyrrha felt Yang let go, and she looked up at Yang and gave her a smile. "Thanks," Pyrrha whispered. "I guess I needed this."

"That's what friends are for, right?" Yang asked. "Come on, let's get back to the rest of our friends."

"I'd like that," Pyrrha replied as she followed Yang back to the cafeteria.

* * *

The rest of the day went about the same for Pyrrha, except this time, she was able to pay a little bit of attention to what was going on. Practice seemed to drag on forever since Pyrrha could actually do much of anything that day thanks to the nurse's orders. By the time she got back to home from practice, Pyrrha was in need of some sleep.

Once she got in, she went down to her room. As she opened the door however, Ruby sat down right on the edge of her bed, waiting for her. It was a surprise for Pyrrha to say the least, but somehow, she knew that this would happen. She needed to talk with Ruby, and now was probably as good a time as any.

"Hey," Ruby said once she saw Pyrrha walk in.

"Hey," Pyrrha replied. "Anything I can help you with?"

Ruby just patted a spot next to her, giving Pyrrha an idea that she wanted to sit down next to her. Pyrrha closed the door behind her and put her stuff down next to the door before she sat down next to Ruby. Once she sat down though, neither of them knew what they wanted to say to each other, so silence took over between the two of them yet again. After a few moments, Ruby finally started to speak.

"Can we, talk about what happened last night?"

Pyrrha sighed, giving herself a moment to calm down her rising heartbeat. "Sure, I figured that we would, after what happened." She said, slowing down towards the end. Both of them knew that this was awkward, and that it was hard to say what they needed to say to each other, but they both knew that they had to talk about it.

"Um, about yesterday," Ruby started. "I really don't know what to say about it exactly, it..." Ruby paused trying to find a way to say everything. "I guess you could say I wasn't expecting to hear that you're in love with me."

"Y-yeah, I don't blame you for being surprised," Pyrrha mentioned. "I would be too if the roles were reversed."

"True, but the thing is, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did last night," Ruby replied. When she looked to Pyrrha and saw that the red head didn't know what she was talking about, Ruby explained further. "You were hoping that I would say something, say anything, but all I did was just stare at the wall and try to take it in. I shouldn't have left you there in silence trying to find out if you did the right thing by talking to me about this."

"Ruby stop," Pyrrha commanded. Her voice wasn't loud, but she spoke with a finality that got Ruby to do what she wanted. "I'm not mad at you for reacting the way you did, so please don't blame yourself." Pyrrha let out a breath so that she could calm herself even more since her emotions were running wild.

"What happened, happened. I don't want you to feel hung up on this, ok?" Pyrrha asked. She only got a nod from Ruby, and with that, Pyrrha felt as if everything was done and that the two of them were good to move on. When she tried to stand up though, She felt Ruby grasp her wrist tightly, giving her an idea that they still had something to talk about.

"Do you need to ask me about anything else, Ruby?"

Pyrrha didn't get a response right away, though from the way Ruby looked, she could almost tell what was on the young girl's mind.

"About what you said last night," Ruby started. "I know that you told me this, and I don't need to hear me wonder if it's actually true or not, but I need to know. Do you really love me?"

Without words, Pyrrha looked down at her lap. She didn't need to say anything to confirm how she felt, only nodding in response to what Ruby had asked. It wasn't that great of a response, but it wasn't as if anyone else would do better in her position.

Ruby let go of Pyrrha's arm, cupping her hands together and pressing her face into them. Ruby had all day to think of what she wanted to say, it just came down to actually saying it now.

"Pyrrha, I..." Ruby pause as she tried to find the words to say this. "I don't know how I feel, to be honest." Somehow, Pyrrha knew deep down that it wouldn't work out for her. Now she had to live with the fact that she knew it for certain now.

"Just, hear me out all the way first," Ruby continued, much to Pyrrha's surprise. "I've spent all day thinking about whether or not I feel the same way as you do, the way that you love me. The only thing is, I don't have an answer. I don't know if it's something that I want, or if it's something that I don't want, and it's killing me inside because it's unfair to you that I don't have an answer for you."

Pyrrha closed her eyes, she was actually surprised by the way this was going. She was going to say something, but Ruby decided to cut her off before she did. "I'm going to make you a promise, right now, and I hope that you can make a promise for me as well."

"Ok," Pyrrha said.

"Since I don't have an answer for you right now, I promise to give you an answer as to whether or not I feel the same way as you once I find out," Ruby said. "It may not be for some time, but I promise that I'll give you the answer. Until then, promise me that you won't let go of how you feel until I give you that answer. When I give you my answer, I don't want it to be for nothing, I actually want to go in knowing that you're depending on me, because then that'll give me a reason to find my answer even more."

As Pyrrha listened to what Ruby wanted from her, she felt her heart start to relax. Maybe it wasn't what she wanted right now, but to be honest, the feeling she had right now was much better than being outright rejected, and she could still hope that there was a chance after all. "I promise," Pyrrha said.

"I'm sorry again, for not giving you a straight answer," Ruby went on. "Hell I haven't even been in a relationship with anyone or gotten kissed so I never experienced anything like this before."

"Neither have I," Pyrrha replied.

At first Ruby was shocked, she couldn't believe that Pyrrha had never even been kissed before."Really, what about that thing that was going on with Jaune?"

"That turned out to be nothing," Pyrrha replied. "Turns out he was interested in someone else at the time and I figured it was better to just move on and let it go."

Ruby couldn't imagine what it was that Pyrrha had been going through. After the initial shock wore off though, Ruby had a thought pop into her head, and that gave her an idea.

In an instant, Ruby lifted Pyrrha's head to face her, and while Pyrrha was wondering what was going on, Ruby kissed her, right on the lips. It took a second for the initial shock to wear off of Pyrrha, but once it did, she savored the feeling of having Ruby's lips against hers. For Pyrrha though, it didn't last long enough and she lamented when Ruby pulled away.

"Well, now we both had our first kiss," Ruby said confidently. "And if things don't work out with us, which who knows if it will or not, then you can say that you got to kiss me as your first one, just like I feel honored to say that you're my first kiss." Pyrrha didn't even realize it, but the thought gave her a smile, and the kiss itself had lit her face ablaze with red shades on her cheeks.

"Plus, I'm just really glad that I helped you find your smile again," Ruby mentioned. With that, the younger girl walked out of Pyrrha's room so that she could have some time to herself.

Pyrrha pressed her fingers to her lips, hoping to keep the feeling she had of when Ruby's lips were there around just a little bit longer.

* * *

 **AN: Well, that was a thing.**

 **I couldn't leave you off with last chapter for Christmas, so I hope this was even better for your you guys.**

 **So this chapter has officially hit over 200 follows, only my fourth story to do so behind Brand New World, Life of a White Rose, and Grand Theft RWBY. This is also the third most followed Victory Rose tagged story in the entire RWBY Fanfiction category. You guys, despite how unlikely this pairing is, are really a wonderful group of people so thank each and every one of you for all you have done.**

 **Anyway, thank you guys so much for tuning in to read yet another chapter of this story. I hope you leave a review/fave/follow this so that it can reach even bigger heights. Thank you for tuning in, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	14. Bridging the Gap

As she sat in the car, Pyrrha couldn't help but stare out the window. That one week had passed since she was both told about her family situation, and since she confessed her feelings to Ruby. Now, here she was, riding in Qrow's car as they drove to the location that was chosen for Pyrrha to meet and speak with her father. Needless to say, Pyrrha was feeling a bit nervous for how the meeting would turn out. She had dressed nicely for the occasion, but it wasn't extravagant, a nice shirt paired with a skirt with leggings underneath. Given how her week had gone, she was hoping that this was something that went well for her.

Ever since she spoke with Ruby about how she felt, things had been hard between the two of them. Pyrrha spent less time with Ruby, for fear that she would do something that would further jeopardize their friendship. Ruby had been very understanding of this, and she only wanted to make sure that Pyrrha was comfortable by the end of it all. Even when they did spend time together, it was easy to see that there was something going on between them that felt a bit awkward. Pyrrha would often try to avoid looking at her, and Ruby would turn away form Pyrrha every time she did look at her, for fear that Pyrrha would catch her staring.

Regardless, Pyrrha knew that she had to not worry herself with that at the moment and focus on what she was doing now, and that was getting ready to meet with her father for the first time in months, and have a full conversation with him. She was nervous, most definitely nervous. Through that though, she was hiding her demeanor quite well, she did have lots of practice at putting on a fake image of herself, years of experience at it. She was however, glad that Qrow was there with her, even if it was a part of his job to do so. Having someone she felt like she could actually trust watching over her as she went through this was a nice way for Pyrrha to stay calm.

Pyrrha noticed as they drove down the streets, that they were getting into the city, the deep heart of the city. She looked over to Qrow, who was focused on driving, and she figured that the meeting was set up in a place downtown, possibly someplace public, just to be safe. Returning to her window staring, she noticed that the Schnee Corporate office was in view. Pyrrha knew that Weiss' father spent a majority of his time in there, and from the few interactions she had with him, he seemed like a pretty nice guy, even if he and Weiss used to have bad blood between them.

It surprised her even more when they came up to the Schnee Corporate office's building and Qrow turned to park in the garage. Now Pyrrha was greatly confused as to what was going on, as she looked over to Qrow, they were driving up to the security gate and a security officer stopped them. "Excuse me, sir," The officer began. "Do you have an appointment with us today?"

Qrow pulled a single sheet of paper that was folded up out of his inside coat pocket and handed it to the guy. After taking a second to read the words on the paper, the security officer turned to a companion in side of the gate control booth and gave him some kind of signal. Next thing Pyrrha knew, the gate was opening and the officer turned back to Qrow.

"Find the receptionist, she'll make sure you get to where you need to go today Lieutenant."

"You two have a good day," Qrow responded as he had his paper returned to him, as well as a second sheet of paper that had some significance to it. Pyrrha wondered what exactly was on the paper, but decided not to press the issue at the moment. Qrow returned to driving and soon found a parking spot that he pulled in to, a V.I.P. parking spot to be specific. Qrow took the sheet that the security officer gave to him and placed it on the dashboard up near the windshield, afterwards he opened the door to his car and stepped out.

Pyrrha figured he had to do something first before they went over to their meeting. "Hey," Qrow said to Pyrrha from outside the car. "You coming or not?"

She realized that this was the place they were having their meeting at, so now she was greatly confused as to what was going on. "Wait, our meeting is here? In the Schnee Corporate office?"

"Yep," Qrow said once Pyrrha stood up from the car. Closing the doors behind them, Qrow locked the car and led Pyrrha over to the building entrance. "Don't worry, everything will make sense once we get the meeting started."

Pyrrha followed him into the elevator and they proceeded to go down to the main lobby. Once they reached it, Qrow led Pyrrha over to the receptionist desk, reaching into his jacket pocket while they walked. "Excuse me," Qrow said, grabbing the receptionists attention. "I was told to come speak with you about this, and that you would help me find where I need to go."

Taking a look at the paper, the receptionist stood up from her desk. "Tana, cover for me for a few minutes," She said to her co-worker, who got the idea of what was going on. "If you would follow me please."

"So polite," Qrow commented, drawing a smile from the young receptionist. Pyrrha just watched silently as she was led back towards the elevator and the three of them stepped inside. It didn't take long for the elevator to reach it's destination, but once it did, the receptionist continued to lead Pyrrha and Qrow over to the conference room. Leading them inside, she asked if there was anything that they needed, Qrow asked for some coffee and Pyrrha just wanted some water. Taking a bow, the receptionist walked out to fetch the items in question, leaving Qrow and Pyrrha alone.

"Why are we here?" Pyrrha asked after a moment.

"Um, we're here for your meeting with your father, that's why," Qrow replied, unsure of why Pyrrha was asking the question.

"No, I mean, why here specifically?" Pyrrha went on. "My father has nothing to do with the Schnee Corporation, so unless the company owes you a favor or two, it just seems a bit odd that it would take place here of all places."

Before Qrow could explain anything, the receptionist returned with their drinks, leaving a tray of different creamers and sugars for Qrow to choose from. Not a second after the receptionist came in, Mr. Schnee himself joined them as well.

"Ah, Qrow, a pleasure to see you again," Mr. Schnee said.

"Frederick," Qrow replied, standing up to shake the man's hand.

"And you must be Miss Nikos," Frederick said, turning towards Pyrrha. "Your father has told me quite a bit about you already."

When Pyrrha heard about that, she was surprised. "Wait, how do you know my father?"

"Well, before I go on to explain that, I must inform you that I am aware of your current relations with your parents," Mr. Schnee mentioned. He noticed how tense Pyrrha got when he told her about that. "Before you ask, Weiss was the one who asked for me to step in and help you, and that is what I have done. Weiss was really eager to help you out, she must have a really great friend in you for her to give such high regards."

"Weiss and I are close friends, yes," Pyrrha said, though she was still confused to what was happening. "But if you don't mind me asking this, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you don't seem like the kind of person who would help my family out, just because Weiss asked you to. So how is it that you've helped me exactly?"

"That will be explained in a minute when your father shows up," Mr. Schnee said.

Before Pyrrha could press the issue any further, the conference door opened up and in walked Pyrrha's father. "Sorry I'm a bit late sir, got caught up in...traffic..." Artemis didn't notice that his daughter was there at first, and once he saw her, he was speechless. "Pyrrha?"

"Artemis," Mr. Schnee said, breaking Pyrrha's father out of his trance. "I wasn't exactly truthful when I said that you were needed at a meeting today. Instead of a performance review, this is a chance for you to speak with your daughter once again."

Artemis was nearly brought to tears after hearing that. "Thank you sir," He said after a few seconds.

Pyrrha, for her part, was still confused as to what exactly was going on. "Wait, what's going on now?"

"Ah, my apologies," Mr. Schnee explained. "When I said before that my daughter asked me to help you, she had suggested that we help by ensuring that your father worked to become a better man."

"Meaning," Pyrrha said, hoping for some elaboration.

"Pyrrha, they offered me a job working with their company," Artemis said instead. "There was a few conditions that I needed to meet in order to keep the job, but I knew that it would be worth it in the end."

"As a part of his arrangement with this company," Mr. Schnee continued. "Mr. Nikos is not allowed to consume any alcohol, he is required to undergo weekly checks to ensure that he is fulfilling these requirements, and in turn, we have given him a job as one of the managers of our storage warehouse along the outskirts of the city. So far, he has upheld his end of the deal."

Hearing all of these things about her father, Pyrrha was nearly brought to tears. She didn't expect it to be so real, to have her father finally away from alcohol, but there was still that lingering doubt in her mind that made her wonder if this was all real or not.

"I'll take my leave now so that you may have some privacy with your daughter," Mr. Schnee said as he walked towards the door, but he stopped just before leaving. "Miss Nikos, the reason I agreed to help is because like your father wants to right now, I had to work hard to rebuild my own relationship with Weiss. You could say that I felt obligated to help the man ensure that he had a chance to do the same." After saying that, Mr. Schnee finally walked out of the conference room and left Pyrrha, Qrow and Mr. Nikos alone.

"Why don't you take a seat Artemis?" Qrow offered. "There's a lot that I'm guessing you need to explain, and I don't want you to feel left out."

Taking a seat opposite of Pyrrha, Mr Nikos rolled up his sleeve to show something to Pyrrha. "As part of the deal I have with the company, I have to wear this bracelet at all times. If it breaks then that's one thing and it gets replaced. The thing with it is that it keeps an eye on my blood alcohol level at all times, and a little computer keeps track of the data the entire time. It was actually my idea too, I needed something to keep me from wandering down the wrong way again."

Pyrrha was speechless, all of this, just so that he could regain his daughters trust, it was almost too real. "At the same time, I've been going to these meetings, with people like me. The kind of people that who are trying to overcome their alcoholism, or their drug habits," Artemis continued as he pulled something out of his pocket. He then flipped the object, which happened to be similar to a coin over to Pyrrha, who noticed that it said 90 days on it. "I got that just the other day, for being sober for three months now." Seeing the coin in her hands now, Pyrrha knew that everything he said was true, she just knew it.

"How?"

Hearing Pyrrha finally speak up after hearing all of this, all of his explanation, it was a surprise to both Qrow and Artemis. From the way Pyrrha sounded too, it seemed like she was ready to cry.

"How did you manage to do this? How did you finally manage to kick the bottle away?" Pyrrha asked.

Artemis looked down at his hand as they rested on the conference table, smiling at his reason. "Well, it's simple I guess," He began to explain after a moment of pause. "The entire time I was away, there's one thing that I wanted more than anything else. Well, two things actually, but one isn't possible without the other."

Qrow could tell that Pyrrha was on the edge of her seat, waiting to hear his response. He knew this moment would come, ever since Pyrrha first explained that her father wasn't that bad of a person, and that she only resented him because of his alcoholism. To see that Pyrrha filled with such hope that everything was about to work out was a wonderful sight to see.

"What I wanted to do more than anything else, was just give you the father that you deserved to have all those years," Artemis said. "To be there for your softball games, comfort you while you cried over crushes that didn't work out, watch a movie with when it's raining and there was nothing else to do. But there's one other thing I wanted, and that was one day, when that time comes, I wanted to be there to walk you down the aisle for your wedding. If I could manage to regain that honor, then I would finally feel like I deserve to be called your father."

It was all too much for Pyrrha, she couldn't take it anymore. Tears started to flow from her eyes, and she covered her face in her hands. After a few seconds of crying, she stood up and all but ran around the table to her father. Once she was there, she nearly tackled him to the ground in a hug, crying into his shoulder one she reached him. It certainly was a wonderful sight to see, father and daughter reunited once again.

One thing still stood out in Pyrrha's mind, but after a few moments of letting the tears of joy out, she finally spoke out on the subject. "I can guess that mom isn't too happy about the fact that you get to see me still."

"Heh, I'm not too worried about her, considering we got divorced a couple months back," Artemis said. Hearing that, Pyrrha nearly shrieked in surprise. "I've actually helped Mr. Branwen over here help keep her away from you after what she had done."

"That I can confirm," Qrow said. "He's been a major help to us."

Pyrrha wrapped her arms around her father yet again, happy that she has her family back again. "Dad..."

For the first time since before Pyrrha left home, she called her father 'dad'. Feeling excited after hearing that, Mr. Nikos tightened his hold on Pyrrha, overjoyed at hearing her say that again. "You don't know how long I've waited to hear that, my little warrior princess."

The nickname that her father said to Pyrrha got a bit of a chuckle out of her, but the two stayed like they were, just getting the most out of the moment.

* * *

 **AN: Well, I think I can officially say that Pyrrha's really starting to get her life back together.**

 **There was something that my fiancee said to me regarding Pyrrha's relationship with her father. What she called it was a "Broken Relationship", and when she explained it further, she said that it didn't mean that their relationship couldn't be fixed, but it would take both of them in order to fix the relationship between the two of them. For Pyrrha's father, that meant he needed to prove to Pyrrha that he had changed and was no longer going to let alcohol affect his life, and for Pyrrha herself, she needed to take a leap of faith and trust her father, give him the chance to prove that he was doing things right.**

 **Now, some guest reviews that I want to address:**

 **Tatya1999: For the most part, it's just a matter of Ruby needing to figure out her own feelings for Pyrrha, and as such they aren't officially together...yet.**

 **Ch. 10 Guest: Blake is fully capable of lightening the mood, don't just discourage the thought based solely on some events in canon, there are some canon events where she is lightening the mood pretty well actually.**

 **Ch. 13 Guest: While you are technically right, I have to say that you're also wrong at the same time. You do bring up a good point in that technically Ruby and Pyrrha are sisters BY LAW. By blood however that isn't anywhere near the case, and once Pyrrha turns 18 (which is actually in a few chapters believe it or not) and is considered an adult, all of that is basically no longer an issue because Pyrrha will be her own woman. What it's basically saying is that she will be allowed to live there so long as Taiyang allows it, but she also wouldn't technically be Ruby's sister anymore. It's a whole bunch of child custody laws and stuff revolving around that which I'm not going to get into right now. Regardless you did bring up a good point and I saw where you were coming from, but those concerns should hopefully be alleviated now.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, hopefully it gave some closure on a very important issue for Pyrrha. Don't forget to fave/follow/review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. Hope to see you again and have a Happy New Year!**


	15. Moving Forward

A few weeks had passed since Pyrrha spoke with her father. Since then the two have spent more and more time together, trying to repair the damage that was between them. After enough time had passed, Qrow had given them permission to see each other without him supervising the two of them. For the most part things were looking up, they never got mad at each other, and Pyrrha could see clear as day that her father was working hard to prove that he wanted to be in her life again. All of Pyrrha's previous notions that discredited her father, were slowly being replaced with proof that he was had become a better man and that Pyrrha was right to give him a chance all along.

So far, he hadn't led her to believe that things were the same. He called her almost every day and asked her how her day went, and often times would be invited to come over to the Xiao Long household for dinner. There were even times when he picked Pyrrha up after her softball practices and drove her back to her new home.

Pyrrha often asked if he was upset that she was officially adopted into the Xiao Long family. Her father always told her the same thing though; 'I wish that you could stay with me, but I know that I don't deserve to have that, not after what I did to you. If you're happy where you are, then that's all that matters to me. I'm just glad that I still get the chance to be a part of your life again.'

And Pyrrha made sure that he was a part of her life. She knew before this whole thing started that he wasn't a bad guy, just a victim of his own vices. There was plenty that he didn't do right when raising her, but at the same time, those things he didn't do right, he didn't do wrong with them either. Pyrrha was more than glad to give him the chance to make things right again.

That particular day, Pyrrha had arranged to spend the night with her father back home. The day before she had told Taiyang that she wanted some space, and the chance to confront her old home, and the memories that came with it. Though Taiyang was skeptical, he allowed Pyrrha to make the arrangements with her father, and when her father picked her up from practice, they would be going home together.

It's what led Pyrrha to where she was right now, waiting by the practice fields for her father to pick her up. Pyrrha wasn't in the best of moods at that moment, part of the reason was why she really wanted to spend the night at her own home, so she could get a night where she doesn't feel so close to her crush and unable to do anything about it. The other reason for her not being in a good mood was because of her performance in practice.

Fortunately, she didn't have to wait for long, as her father pulled up to the fields not a minute later. Once Pyrrha threw her bags into the back seat, she climbed into the car and let out a frustrated sigh as she closed the door.

"Bad day?" Her father asked once she got in.

"I'm fine, dad," Pyrrha replied, not really feeling up to talking.

"Well you certainly don't look like it to me," Artemis said. "You want to talk about it?"

"You don't have to worry about it," Pyrrha said, resting her head against the head rest. "It's nothing."

"No I actually think that you're wrong," Pyrrha's father rebuked. "I can tell that something is bothering you, and I want to help you feel better. Just give me the chance to do so, please."

Pyrrha felt a pang of guilt course through her, she knew her father only wanted to help, especially after not doing so for the longest time. Still, she didn't feel like sharing just yet, so she came up with a compromise. "Can we at least get home first? I don't want to do this while you're driving, and I really need a shower."

Looking over to her father, Pyrrha could tell that he was giving it some thought. "Alright, but once you're done with your shower, I hope you'll be more open to talk about it."

"I will, I promise," Pyrrha replied before turning her attention to the scenery passing by in the window.

The drive after that point remained silent, aside from the radio playing some music in the background. It wouldn't be a long drive for Pyrrha, and at that moment, she was really looking forward to a shower. Unfortunately, her shoulder was still hurting from all the work she has been putting on it, though not as bad as it has been before. She knew that she needed to get some ice on it soon or it wouldn't be in any better shape later.

By the time they reached their destination, Pyrrha had strange feelings overtake her. The last time she was there, she was taking all of her belongings and moving them out so she could leave home and live with Ruby and Yang. It was going to be a strange night for Pyrrha, old emotions and memories at risk of popping in at any moment in time. Still, she knew that this was something she needed to do, so now was no time to turn around out of fear or worry. Taking those first few steps towards her old home was the hardest part though, and once she started to walk, it became easier and easier to do.

Pyrrha could tell that her father was worrying about her, watching as she paused before stepping towards the house. It was actually really nice that he was showing so much care, and Pyrrha turned back to him and smiled before opening up the front door and crossing the threshold to the inside of her old home.

Once she got in, she noticed that there was so much that was different with it, the home looked noticeably cleaner than when she was there last time. Pyrrha could only guess that since her father was no longer drinking that he had much more time to spend doing other things while he was at home after work. She walked around the house, taking her time to see what had changed. The pictures of her family had all been pulled down, replaced by ones of just Pyrrha, Pyrrha's aunt, uncle and cousin Blake, or of Pyrrha with her father. Her mother seemed to have vanished from this place in an instant.

As she walked over to the staircase, she looked at the wall where she fell into all that time ago. This is where she expected to find memories from what had happened to her, but the more she stared at that one spot, the less she felt that the memories would come to her. ' _Maybe I finally got past them,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself as she continued on her way, climbing the stairs up to her room.

Once she opened the door, she was surprised by how clean it's been kept. Either her father had made sure that it was cleaned up before Pyrrha came her, or he had been taking care with cleaning it for a long time now. One way or the other, Pyrrha was glad that her father was thoughtful enough to keep it clean for her, even if it was just for tonight. She closed the door behind her and got out of her practice attire, she was glad that there was a towel left for her on the bed that she could use to shower. Once she wrapped herself in the towel, she walked over to the bathroom, noticing that there was all of the shower products she used on the sink.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she noticed that her shoulder was red. Pyrrha walked out of the bathroom and started to make her way down the stairs. "Hey, dad?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Could you throw together some kind of ice pack? I'm gonna need it after I get out of the shower," Pyrrha replied to her father.

She could hear her father's footsteps approaching, figuring that he wanted to know why she needed an ice pack. "Everything alright?"

"It's just my shoulder," Pyrrha answered. "Put too much of a strain on it and now I need to give it some rest."

"Alright, I'll put something together for you when you get out," Her father said, returning to whatever he was doing beforehand.

Pyrrha returned to the bathroom up the stairs and got a shower ready. Waiting for the water to reach a nice warm temperature, she moved the shower products over to where she could reach them while under the water, then climbed into the shower once it was ready. Feeling the warm water pelt her skin brought about some relief, and Pyrrha sighed as the tension in her body started to evaporate with the steam that her shower was producing. She felt each muscle in her body start to relax, even her shoulder a little bit, and it was a welcome relief.

It didn't take her too long before she finished her shower up, and she stepped out after turning the water off. Drying off quickly, she practically ran back to her room in order to get changed. Pyrrha wrapped the towel around her head so that all of her hair could dry, and she slipped into her pajamas afterwards. Once she was done, Pyrrha returned downstairs and walked into the living room where her father was waiting for her with dinner and that ice pack she had asked for earlier.

"Feeling better?" Artemis asked once he saw Pyrrha approach.

"You could say that," Pyrrha replied. "It's really weird being back here, quieter than what I remember."

"Heh, I figured you would pick up on that," Artemis mentioned. He handed Pyrrha her dinner plate and the ice pack, offering to help her put the ice pack on, though Pyrrha said she was alright handling it. "So, you want to tell me about why you were so upset earlier today?"

Once Pyrrha finished wrapping the ice pack around her shoulder, she leaned back into the couch and thought of what had happened to put her in such a fowl mood earlier that day. She did promise to tell him about what had happened after all. "Well, if you couldn't tell, I've been dealing with a lot of shoulder problems recently, mostly putting too much stress on it while it had been trying to recover from what mom did to me. I'm pretty sure because of it I've extended the amount of time I really would need to allow it to fully heal."

"I'm sorry to hear about that," Artemis lamented. "I really wish that I could have done something to stop that though."

"Don't worry about that now dad," Pyrrha retorted. "What's in the past is done. I've moved past it, you should too."

Pyrrha looked to her father, giving him a moment to nod and agree to what she had said before continuing. "Aside from the problems with my shoulder, I had an overall terrible day at practice today. I couldn't seem to make contact at all, and I was making stupid mistakes out on the field. Outside of practice I'm having problems with...actually, nevermind. I don't want to talk about that."

"Pyrrha," Artemis groaned. "You can tell me these things, you know that right?" Instead of getting an answer from Pyrrha, all that her father got was silence. After a bit, he figured it was better to just let it go. "Alright, if you don't want to talk about it then that's fine. I can wait until you're ready."

"No!" Pyrrha's shout was a bit louder and more forceful than she would have liked, but she had said it that way. "I'll tell you about it, since you've been trying so hard to show me that you are there for me now. It's the least I could do."

"You don't have to do anything you aren't comfortable with doing," Artemis tried to say.

"I know, but this is something I need to say," Pyrrha said. "There's this person whom I've fallen in love with for a, really long time now. They know that I'm crushing on them pretty hard but, but they don't know if they feel the same way and I'm worried that I'm holding on to this feeling I have for them for nothing."

"Ok, so this guy isn't telling you how he feels for you," Artemis ponders. "You don't have to tell me this, but who, might I ask, is this guy exactly?"

Part of why Pyrrha was originally hesitant to talk about her feelings for Ruby gave her reason to feel concerned. "It's not a guy, dad," Pyrrha said, deciding to just get it over with and tell him that she wasn't straight. "It's, Ruby." Pyrrha was worried that by telling her father that it was Ruby, that he would be upset over her falling in love with another woman.

"So, since you don't know if Ruby loves you back, you're worried that she'll eventually say that she might not and then you would feel like you had just wasted your time on someone who in the end didn't return the feeling," Artemis said. "And since I'm assuming this is the same Ruby that you're living with, that there is some building tension between the two of you over this really big issue."

"Something like that," Pyrrha said, her father hitting the nail right on the head. Only after a second did she realize her father didn't say anything about her falling in love with a woman. "Wait, you don't care that I'm in love with another woman?"

"I only have one thing to say about that," Pyrrha's father began. "If you truly love the person you end up with, either man, woman or someone in between, so long as you're happy, then I'm happy."

Pyrrha couldn't help but slide next to her dad on the couch and wrap him in a hug. It was a welcome relief to hear that her father was accepting of her sexuality. "Thanks dad," Pyrrha whispered into his shoulder.

"You're welcome," Artemis replied. "Now, as for your dilemma regarding Ruby, I'd say give her a chance." Pyrrha looked up at him, waiting for her father to explain. "From what I've seen so far, she's someone who really does care about you, as a friend, and maybe as something more. You said that she doesn't know how she feels for you, so all you need to do is give her the chance to find out. I don't doubt that she's been trying hard to find out for you because of how close the two of you are. So, don't give up on this love for her just yet, I've never seen you give up on anything yet, not your novel, not your happiness, not on me, so why would you give up now when this could possibly turn out to be the best thing to happen to you?"

"How did you know that I was writing a novel? I never told you about that," Pyrrha asked.

"Oh, well one day while you were still living here, I ended up needing to grab some aspirin from your room since I knew you kept some in there," Artemis explained. "This was before I went into work, and as I was looking for it, I found all of your notes on the novel that you were doing and pieced it together. Seeing your work all that time ago put a smile on my face because I knew then and there that you were going to become a better person than your mother or I ever could be, and I was proud of you because of it. Plus, you've already proven that to be true, and I couldn't be happier for you."

Pyrrha felt some tears fall down her face as she heard her father give praise for what she has done. It was so wonderful having such kind words said about her from someone who has such a huge impact on her life. "Thanks dad," Pyrrha said as she held him a little closer.

"No need to thank me, Pyrrha," Artemis replied. "You deserve all of the love and kindness that I could give, and me just saying what is true doesn't need thanks. But promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Promise me that you won't give up this love until you know for certain what Ruby's feelings are," Artemis said. "I know you deserve to be happy, and if she ends up doing so, then I want you to give her the chance to prove it."

"I promise," Pyrrha said, hearkening back to what she had also promised Ruby after she had confessed her love.

With all of her troubles put to the side, Pyrrha turned to her dinner and began to enjoy the food that her father made for her. The two of them spent most of the night just talking to each other while watching TV, but eventually Pyrrha fell asleep on the couch. Taking note of this, Artemis turned off the TV and picked Pyrrha up in his arms. Being as gentle as possible, Artemis carried Pyrrha up to her room and laid her down on her bed. He pulled the blanket over her an gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Goodnight," Artemis whispered to Pyrrha as he stood up and turned out the light in her room, letting her sleep the night away.

* * *

Once Pyrrha woke up, she noticed that she was in her room. Though she didn't remember getting into her room last night, she had an idea of what could've happened that led to her being there. Pyrrha looked at the clock and noticed that she had enough time to get to school and relax a bit before school started. So once she got changed into her school clothes, Pyrrha walked downstairs and started to make her way out the door.

Pyrrha realized that her father wasn't awake yet. She figured that he got up a little bit later than she had, but before she walked out the door, a thought came to her mind. Before she left home, she would always try to show her thanks to her father by making sure he had lunch to take to work. In all the time that she had been away, Pyrrha didn't know if he had gotten that, though even if he did, it wouldn't be the same as having his daughter show that she still cares for him the way she normally would.

Taking a few extra minutes to throw together a lunch that her father would really enjoy, Pyrrha felt pleased with herself. She put the lunch into the fridge, and then grabbed a note pad and a pen from the desk drawer. She never really got the chance to thank her father recently, so with much thought put in, Pyrrha made sure to leave him a heartfelt message. She left a second note on the door telling her father to look in the fridge. Once she put the message on top of the lunch she had just made for her father, Pyrrha walked out the door and started to make her way towards the school, thinking over what her message had said.

-Hey, I left early so that I could get to the school and talk with the nurse about my shoulder before school starts. Don't worry, everything should be fine, I just need to be sure first. I know I didn't say this last night, but I wanted to say thank you for being there for me, and for being the best father I could've asked for. I love you, Pyrrha. =) -

* * *

 **AN: Whelp, things are starting to work out for Pyrrha. Now all she needs to do is get her love life in order and then everything will be perfect for her. But alas, she still has ways to go before she gets her love life in order.**

 **Tatya1999: I'm glad that you enjoyed seeing Pyrrha work things out with her father, hopefully this chapter helped to show the development in that regard. Seeing as how time had past since that first meeting, hopefully it goes to show that some stuff happened off screen in between then and now.**

 **Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoy this fic (I am literally one review away from 100 as of me writing this out). Feel free to review, follow and fave this, because in all honesty, this is the fic that I feel is my greatest work ever. I've just fallen in love with this story and I can't wait to see it come to an end when it eventually does.**

 **Love you guys, and I'll see you all next week!**


	16. Back to Where We Were

Pyrrha was really feeling the pressure as she walked into the school that morning. Today was the softball teams first official game of the season, and they were feeling excited to get the season under way. Pyrrha of course, was worried about her shoulder and how it would affect her. It had been a few days since she spend the night with her father, and fortunately for her, ever since then she had put in an extra effort to take care of her shoulder. But with today being the first game of the season, she needed to make sure she got some extra practice in before school started, just to feel better about how she would perform during the game itself.

Of course, the team that they were playing against wasn't going to go easy on them, that much Pyrrha knew. Their first game was against one of the schools rivals, but for Pyrrha there was also the fact that Blake was on the other school's softball team, and they were playing against each other today. So, Pyrrha really needed to step up her performance, else her cousin would feel like she wasn't really trying as hard as she could have done.

So, she decided to hit the cages that morning so she could get the confidence that her swing would be on target that day. However, what she didn't expect to find once she got out of the locker room, was Ruby waiting for her.

"Ruby? What are you doing here?" Pyrrha asked.

"I know you have a really important day today, and I get that you're really stressed out from that, but there's something I really need to talk with you about and I don't know when I'd get the chance to after right now," Ruby replied.

Pyrrha was waiting for Ruby to give a response, though she could probably tell what it was somewhat about. "Pyrrha, ever since you told me about how you feel, the two of us haven't been as close as usual," Ruby said. "I know that it's because you are worried that things are going to be awkward between us, and I know that they have been ever since then, but I hate this. I hate that you and I don't just hang out anymore, I hate that because I don't know how I feel for you, and that I still don't know how I feel for you, has pretty much made me feel like I lost one of my closest friends."

"Ruby..." Pyrrha wanted to say something, but she didn't know what it was that she wanted to say though.

"Why can't we go back to hanging out with each other? I miss it when we get to just sit with each other and talk about the most random of topics, just like we used to do," Ruby said.

Pyrrha walked past Ruby and rested her arm and head against the frame of the door leading into the batting cage. "It's because of my and how I feel for you, Ruby," Pyrrha lamented. "You're still figuring out how you feel, but I know how I feel. Every time I see you, you have no idea how hard it is for me to hold back the desire to hold you, walk through the halls hand in hand, you don't know how much I would love to kiss you like there is no tomorrow. And I can't do any of that because I don't want to ruin our friendship. To have the one person who you love right in front of you and knowing that you can't say anything to them, can't do anything that would make you feel loved, it hurts, it really does."

"I'm sorry."

Hearing Ruby whisper an apology to Pyrrha was a shock at first, the younger girl had nothing to be sorry for. "For what?"

"For doing this to you, for making you feel as if you can't do the things that you want to do when you're with me," Ruby said, rubbing her hands down her face as she finished. "I'm sorry that I still don't know how I feel about you, and that me not knowing is causing you to feel so upset and heartbroken."

"Ruby, stop," Pyrrha interjected. "I know it may look like the fault is on you, but the truth is I'm the one who should be blamed for this." Pyrrha saw that Ruby was about to say something, but she held up her hand to stop her. "No, let me explain."

Pyrrha took a moment to get her composure together, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "After I confessed how I felt for you, I was upset because I didn't know if I should've said anything. Because of that, and because I wanted to give you a chance to figure out how you felt, I pushed you away, hoping that I wouldn't feel hurt by not being able to do all of those things that I have said, and more. But I guess what I wanted to say, was that what I failed to notice when I did that, was just how much I was hurting you in the process. I didn't see how much I was hurting you when I was trying to push away my own hurt, even though doing that just made me feel more and more hurt not being around you."

"It's ok," Ruby said. "I know this is hard, on both of us. You and I are in a tough position, one that I don't think many others would envy being in. Can we just try to spend more time together? I know that I would feel better by doing that, and somehow, I think you miss spending time with me as well."

"I certainly do miss it," Pyrrha commented.

"Then let's at least try to hang out a bit more often, even if we know it'll be hard for us to do," Ruby continued. "I promise that if things get uncomfortable for you then I'll let you be, but I just want to know that I still have my friend through all of this."

"I'll do what I can, ok?" Pyrrha asked, getting a nod from Ruby. "I really didn't mean to make this hard on you, and I promise that I'll spend some more time just hanging out with you. One thing though, I hope you don't mind if at times I get close to you, you know what I mean?"

"You talking, snuggling up on the couch while watching a move close, laying down on the couch and nearly falling asleep in each others arms close?" Ruby asked, a blush from Pyrrha giving her all the response that she needed. "I think that I wouldn't mind that actually, it seems like a nice idea."

Despite how red Pyrrha was feeling, she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Ruby."

"No problem," Ruby responded. "I'm just glad that I have my friend back.

With that all squared away, Ruby walked up to Pyrrha and gave her a hug. "Good luck in your game today," Ruby said as she hugged Pyrrha. "I'll be there to watch how it goes."

"Well then in that case I better actually try," Pyrrha said. "Wouldn't want to fail at impressing you, now wouldn't I?"

It was a gamble, Pyrrha knew that, but she was hoping that her flirting with Ruby would end well. Seeing the look on Ruby's face, how much she blushed after the comment gave Pyrrha the reaction she had been hoping for.

"Well, I mean uh, you don't need to uh, do anything to impress me," Ruby stumbled. "You are already impressive enough as is, what with your uh, great, soft uh...softball skills!"

Pyrrha was almost laughing at the way Ruby tried to flirt back with her. She could somehow tell that Ruby was going to talk about something else entirely, but the attempt was wonderful none the less. "Well, is that really what you wanted to talk about there, Ruby?"

"Softball skills!" Ruby practically shouted in an attempt to deflect Pyrrha's question.

"Ok, if you say so," Pyrrha replied, she had done enough to tease Ruby, and decided that she had enough. "Anyway, I guess I don't have time to do any actual practice, so I gotta get changed."

"Sorry for taking up your time then," Ruby said, going even redder from embarrassment.

"Actually, I don't mind that you did," Pyrrha replied. "I may have missed out on a bit of practice that I probably didn't need, but in return, I got the chance to fix things with one of my best friends. I'd say that was worth it."

"Alright, I'll see you at the game then?" Ruby asked.

"That you will," Pyrrha beamed as she walked into the locker room to change.

* * *

After school had ended, Pyrrha didn't head out to the field to warm up immediately. Instead, she decided to pay a visit to the nurses office so that she could get a final check on her shoulder. Better to be safe than sorry, especially since it was the beginning of the season.

"Well, from what I can tell, you're shoulder is doing much better than it was a few days ago, so you should be good for the game today," Mr. Haywood said. "However, I would still suggest that you don't go overboard today, it's only the first game of the season and we don't need you getting taken out to injury right off the bat."

"I'll do what I can, but it is a game, and my cousin's on the other team," Pyrrha mentioned. "So if I didn't give it my all today, I would hear about it for a while."

"In that case, just be careful," Mr. Haywood recommended. "After your game, ice your shoulder once you get home, and be sure to give it a break whenever you can."

"Thanks Doc," Pyrrha said.

"Good luck today, Pyrrha," Mr. Haywood said as Pyrrha walked out of the nurses office. Once she was done there, she made her way to the locker room and got changed into her uniform, bearing the number 21 across her back. Once she was ready for the game, Pyrrha walked out to the field and joined up with the rest of her team, calling everyone together so that they could begin their usual team warm up. Leading them through that, she then split them up so they could do their individual exercises. Pyrrha noticed that the other team was starting to make their way over to the field, and she saw her cousin Blake among them.

Once Blake put her belongings on the bench, she walked over to meet Pyrrha in the field. Most people on the teams knew the two of them were cousins, so it wasn't a surprise to them when Blake and Pyrrha met each other before the game started. As the two cousins usually did before they played against each other, Pyrrha and Blake did their traditional complex handshake before pulling each other into a hug.

"Hey there cuz," Blake said.

"It's great to see you," Pyrrha replied as they let go of each other. "Granted we're playing against each other right now." That got the two of them to laugh for a moment. "But still, it's great to see you regardless."

"Same to you," Blake concurred. "How's your shoulder feeling?"

"Eh, it's doing fine," Pyrrha shrugged. "Gotta make sure I rest it after the game since you would kill me if I didn't give my all today."

"Docs saying you should take it easy?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, but I told him that I don't think that's possible today," Pyrrha admitted. "He seemed to understand and just told me to give it lots of rest after the game."

"Don't kill yourself out there Pyrrha," Blake suggested. "I know you want to give it your all for me, but it isn't useful when you're risking your health."

"I'll try not to then, ok?"

"I guess that's all I can ask for," Blake conceded. "In any case, good luck to you."

"You too," Pyrrha replied as the two cousins went back to their respective benches and waited for the game to start.

Once everyone was warmed up, the pre game procedures started to get underway. The umpires called for the game to start, and Pyrrha took to the field at her position as the team's Shortstop. Before the first pitches were thrown, Pyrrha looked out at the crowd, scanning it for the people she hoped would be there.

Much to her surprise, and her delight, she saw that not only was Ruby there in the stands, but that Yang, and Weiss were both there as well. Sitting beside them, was Taiyang and Qrow, which was a bit of a surprise, but given that they were a part of her adoptive family now, she figured that they were there because she was part of the family.

What gave her the biggest smile though, was sitting right between Ruby and Taiyang, was Pyrrha's father. It was a really big deal for Pyrrha that her father was there, since this was the first game he had ever been to see her play in. Now that he was trying to do right by Pyrrha, it was only natural that he would show up to her games, and seeing him there really gave Pyrrha a smile.

Pyrrha looked over to the other bench, specifically at Blake, and she noticed that Blake saw her father too. A smile crossed Blake's face as she realized how big of a deal this was for Pyrrha to have her father there. Looking into the stands behind Blake's team, Pyrrha also saw her aunt and uncle there as well. Pretty much Pyrrha's entire family was here to see her first game.

Bringing her attention back to the game, Pyrrha was ready to start playing, she was ready to give everyone a performance like they wouldn't believe.

* * *

Towards the middle of the game, the score was neck and neck. Pyrrha was up to bat and with one of her teammates on second, she was hoping to come through and add some runs to her teams score. She was doing her best to stay calm and think, knowing that having her pulse up wouldn't be useful to her at all.

With one ball and two strikes on the count, the pitcher threw the ball down towards Pyrrha. As soon as it left the pitchers glove though, Pyrrha knew that it wasn't going in the direction that the pitcher had probably intended, and instead it was heading right for her. With barely any time to react, Pyrrha instinctively turned so that the ball would impact a part of her body that could take the hit better. However; ball made contact against her previously injured left shoulder.

Once the hit was made, Pyrrha winced in pain, her left arm and hand tensing up immediately after the impact. Looking down the field towards the pitcher, she could see that the throw really was a wild pitch, so Pyrrha knew not to hold it against her. Since she was hit by the pitch, Pyrrha started to make her way towards first, her shoulder hurting, and feeling disappointed that her at bat turned up nothing for her team.

Reaching first base, she was met with a concerned Blake, who was the other teams first baseman. "Pyrrha, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Pyrrha replied. "Just didn't expect that is all, I'll be fine."

"I'll be fine my ass," Blake retorted. "That was your bad shoulder that was hit."

"I appreciate the concern, but really Blake, I'll be fine, I promise," Pyrrha said. "Besides, I've been hit there much worse than that. Get on my level."

Despite the attempt at making a joke over what happened, Blake didn't think it was wise to make a joke over what Pyrrha really went through. "That's not something to joke about," Blake said.

"I know, but I'm over that now," Pyrrha mentioned. "I gotta thank you for that actually."

"Thank me after the game, sweet cheeks," Blake replied, making a traditional joke between the two of them.

"I certainly will, buttercup," Pyrrha retorted. The two of them usually gave each other funny nicknames during the games that they played against each other. It was a nice way of lightening the mood and lifting either of their spirits if they were feeling down.

* * *

As the game was wrapping up, it was tied up, Pyrrha was once again up to bat. This time there was no one on the field to bring in, so she had to give her team the opportunity to get the win. ' _No pressure,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself as she waited for the pitch.

When it came her way, Pyrrha was ready. She put everything she had into the swing, even though she knew the strain on her shoulder would go up a bit. Making contact with the ball, Pyrrha could just tell that it was gone. Pyrrha took off down the line, watching the ball sail over the outfielders heads and over the fence, signifying a home run.

With that one hit, the game was over, no chance for the other team to respond, Pyrrha had just given her team the victory. As she passed first base, Blake held her hand out for Pyrrha to high five as she ran past. Once she made her way all the way back to home plate, the rest of her team was waiting there to celebrate the win with Pyrrha.

Pyrrha was glad that it ended well, especially with her father in the stands watching. She really was glad that she had shown how great of a player she was. Once the two teams shook hands after the game, Pyrrha only had to meet with the team and talk for a bit before they were given permission to head home. After taking her leave, Pyrrha made her way over to her friends and family who had all come out to see her. Even Blake and her parents were with them, chatting among themselves while they waited for Pyrrha to show up.

"Hey there slugger," Taiyang said once Pyrrha approached the group. "Nice job out there today."

"Thanks," Pyrrha said. Before anyone else could speak, Pyrrha walked over to her dad and gave him a hug. "I'm really glad you were here for the game."

"Of course, I guess you could say that I have a lot of games to catch up on," Artemis replied. "You played really well out there today."

"Thanks," Pyrrha said. She turned to Blake after that, noting that she was standing in front of her parents. "I'd say that was a good game, don't you think Blake?"

"Certainly was," Blake responded. Blake's parents stepped out from behind Blake and gave Pyrrha a hug.

"It was wonderful to see you both playing at your best today," Blake's mother Helena said. "And it's even better knowing that Art finally managed to get his act together and come watch you play as well."

"Well, what can I say," Artemis said. "I guess I finally figured out what's important." Artemis knew that as much as Pyrrha enjoyed the fact that he was there, she was probably more interested in spending time with her friends. "Alright, I'm off Pyrrha. Got a busy day tomorrow at work and I'm sure you want to spend some quality time with Ruby and Yang over there."

"You're not going to worry about her well being?" Helena accused.

"Aunt Helena," Pyrrha spoke up. "I appreciate the concern, but you don't need to worry."

Before Helena could speak up, Taiyang stepped in to explain. "I'm not entirely sure if you heard this or not, but Pyrrha was officially adopted into my family recently."

"Oh, I didn't realize that was the case," Helena said. "It's a relief to know that you're taking care of my little Pyrrha. I hope you don't mind if I ask you some questions since you're taking care of my niece."

"That's fine, I figured you would want to know since you're an important part of Pyrrha's life," Taiyang said. "Why don't you and your family join us for dinner tonight? I'm sure it would be a wonderful time."

"Well that sounds lovely, don't you agree Will?" Helena asked her husband.

"Of course," He said in response. "Art, you better not try to get out of this."

"If everyone else is going, I'll join the festivities," Artemis said.

While all of this was going on, Pyrrha noticed that the only one who seemed to be silent and off to the side was Ruby. She was sure that was partially because of their conversation earlier in the day, but it really unnerved Pyrrha to see Ruby act so shy and reserved. She looked over to Ruby and gave her a smile, hoping that it would brighten the younger girls mood a bit. Her hopes were answered when Ruby seemed to take note of the smiling Pyrrha and in return, smiled herself.

Before Pyrrha knew it, she was being called by Yang to follow her to the car so that they could go home. As Pyrrha started to make her way over, she felt an arm wrap around her back, and pull her into a side hug. Looking over to see Ruby right next to her smiling gave Pyrrha a deep blush, but she didn't shy away from the embrace.

"Congrats on your game today," Ruby said. "And, thanks for being so understanding earlier."

"Yeah," Pyrrha replied. "I should be thanking you for the same reason since you're just as understanding."

"We'll work through this, Pyrrha," Ruby said. "May take some time, but we'll figure out what we are exactly. For now, let's just go home and enjoy a nice meal together."

"I'd like that."

* * *

 **AN: Ok, just gonna preface this by saying, that was a fucking episode. Not gonna spoil it, but oh dear god I don't know what to think.**

 **Anyway, onto the chapter itself. After speaking with my friends Phoenix Commander and Shadow Nightblade, I feel I mention something to everyone. So, first things first, if you couldn't tell, what happened to Pyrrha with her mother is now behind Pyrrha, and she no longer looks back on that moment in her life badly anymore. Basically what I'm saying is, she's moved past it and is on to bigger and better things.**

 **Now, we are so close to breaking 250 follows on this story. You guys have been incredible with the amount of support for this story and I am extremely grateful that you all have given this story a chance. I know that this story has had it's ups and downs, but you've stuck with it through it all.**

 **Even better, last chapter had 15 reviews on it, and I had 18 reviews in total since the last chapter was posted a week ago. In all honesty, this has been the single most reviewed chapter out of all of them and I'm really glad that you guys are giving me feedback on what I'm writing.**

 **Any who, thanks for reading, don't forget to Fave/Follow/Review at your discretion, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.**


	17. A Night Out on the Town

Pyrrha, for the first time in a long time, had nothing to do. She finally had a Saturday free for once and there was no obligations for her at all. She wanted to take the chance at getting some writing done, but for some reason, she had so much trouble with coming up with stuff to write. So, Pyrrha decided to just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet while she could. It gave her plenty of time to reflect on all that has happened to her in the past few weeks.

While she managed to patch things up with Ruby, Pyrrha knew that she was still being a bit hesitant with being around the younger girl. It wasn't like she wanted to avoid Ruby, Pyrrha just felt like she didn't have a choice but to do so for the sake of their friendship. She was being more open with Ruby, but it probably wasn't enough to keep things between them great.

Still, Pyrrha had to admit that she was happier now that she was actively spending a bit more time with Ruby. She still held back when it came to things such as hugging her, but that didn't stop her completely. She still hugged Ruby on occasion, though everyone knew that it wasn't the same between them now that Pyrrha confessed her feelings for Ruby, but Ruby would admit that she was happy with having Pyrrha talking with her more often.

As Pyrrha was laying on her bed, she was thinking about all that happened. To her surprise however, she heard a knock on the door that tore her from her thoughts. "Who is it?" Pyrrha asked after realizing someone wanted to talk with her.

"It's Ruby, can I come in?" Ruby asked.

Pyrrha sat up in her bed and took a moment to calm her beating heart. Every time Ruby was around nowadays, she felt her heart rate skyrocket and it would always force Pyrrha to take a moment to calm herself. She forced herself to remember that Ruby wasn't ready for a relationship, let alone one that could be with her. Once she was better, she stood up and walked over to the door to let Ruby in.

"Thanks," Ruby said once the door was open.

"No problem," Pyrrha replied, putting on a faint smile. It wasn't one that she had to fake for so long, instead this was genuine, even if it was one that was small compared to some of the other ones that she had before. "Anything I can do for you, Ruby?"

"I actually wanted to ask if you had any plans tonight," Ruby mentioned.

Pyrrha was wondering what was going through Ruby's head. "Um, I didn't have any plans going on," She admitted. It was fairly easy to say that Pyrrha wasn't going to be busy today since she didn't have anything going on with school or softball that day. Her dad was also busy with a meeting that day and wasn't available for Pyrrha to spend time with him either.

"Why do you ask if I have any plans?" Pyrrha asked once she saw the grin on Ruby's face.

"You and me should go out and spend time together today," Ruby exclaimed.

"What?"

"Yeah, we can like, go to that carnival in town," Ruby said.

As much as Pyrrha wanted to go with Ruby, she was concerned that she would end up treating this as if it were some kind of date when she knew it wouldn't be. "I'm not so sure about that, Ruby," Pyrrha admitted. "Nothing against you, but that seems too much like a date, and you know how things are between us."

Ruby noticed Pyrrha's hesitation and was ready with her own response. "Yeah, but we can still go just as friends, and you did promise me that you would try to spend more time hanging out with me." Ruby hated having to pull that card on Pyrrha, but it was true, Pyrrha did promise that she would try to spend more time with Ruby so that the two wouldn't lose their friendship. "Please, I promise that you'll have a good time."

Pyrrha sighed, there wasn't a thing that she could think of that gave her cause to not go with Ruby. "Alright, I'll go," Pyrrha conceded. "And I know that I promised that I would hang out with you more, but you need to understand why I have been pushing myself further away, right?"

"Something like that," Ruby replied. "So, you go get dressed and get the car keys from Yang. She said that we have the ok to use her car to get us back and forth since Weiss is picking her up and driving her over to her house for some kind of party."

"Alright, I'll see you upstairs then," Pyrrha said as she shooed Ruby out of her room so she could change.

Once Ruby was out of her room she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a couple of items. First thing was a pair of gray leggings, that she planned on wearing under a red pleated skirt. She then pulled out a light gray v-neck shirt that she threw on. Over top of her shirt was a thin, light, brown leather jacket that had a gray hood coming from the neck. After that was a pair of dark brown boots that went up her calves. Normally she wouldn't care about appearance, but for Ruby, she wanted to look her best. She wasn't in the mood to mess with makeup though, and so decided that it wasn't worth the effort since Ruby herself probably wasn't going to be wearing any as well. Plus, she actually hated wearing makeup on a normal basis.

By that point, she felt that she was ready for her "not date" with Ruby. She knew it was going to be impossible for her to not consider this a date, but she had to try. Once she was upstairs, Pyrrha noticed Yang sitting on the couch waiting for her to get up there. "Hey Yang," Pyrrha said once she walked into the living room.

"Hey Pyrrha," Yang replied. "I hear you have a date with Ruby tonight."

"It's not a date, Yang," Pyrrha grumbled. "Just two friends hanging out together doing something that could be considered a date if the two people involved didn't know where they stood in those terms."

"Jeez, didn't know I'd strike a nerve with that," Yang said as she fished the keys to her car out of her pocket. "Look, before I give you the keys, I just want to say one thing."

"And that would be?"

"Try to enjoy the evening," Yang said. "I know it will be hard for you, hell even Ruby knows that things may be hard for you to deal with while you're out together, but she really wants to make sure that you at least enjoy the time together. This is something that you both deserve, a night together without having to worry about anything but enjoying the time you two get together, whether it's together together, or just as friends, make the most of it."

Pyrrha couldn't help but put on a small smile, much like before. "Alright, I get what you're saying, Yang," Pyrrha decided. "Thanks, I appreciate the pep talk."

"Please, what kind of best friend would I be if I didn't help you out when you needed me to?" Yang asked.

"Yang Xiao Long, best friend of Pyrrha Nikos," Pyrrha jabbed at Yang, turning Yang's joke on herself.

"Oh you wound me Pyr," Yang said, faking a pained expression. "Why must you wound me so?"

"Because you're my best friend and can handle a little joke," Pyrrha replied.

"Fair enough," Yang said tossing Pyrrha the keys. "Keep my little sister safe, and don't get any ideas, ok? You can wait until you two finally get together before you think of doing those kinds of things with her."

"Yang!" Pyrrha shouted as she threw a couch cushion at Yang.

"Alright alright, I get it," Yang said. "Just have fun tonight."

Pyrrha watched as Yang walked over to her room, only for the blonde to be replace by Ruby coming to the living room. She wore pair of black cargo pants, with a band t-shirt underneath a crimson red hoodie. "You ready to go?" Ruby asked.

"Sure," Pyrrha said as she stood up and walked with Ruby over to the garage. "Your dad knows we're going out right?"

"Yup," Ruby said in response. "Technically he is your father as well."

"True, but not by blood," Pyrrha replied. "Plus once I'm 18, technically I'm an adult and can live on my own, so it'll be more like he would be offering me a place to stay."

"Still, you'll be around by the time that happens," Ruby replied.

"Yeah, considering that's in two weeks and a few days, I know I'm gonna be sticking around for a while," Pyrrha said. By that point the two of them were in the car and Pyrrha started to drive away.

"Oh yeah, that's going to be so awesome!" Ruby proclaimed. "I tend to forget that your birthday is like, right before Yang's by a few weeks."

"Her's is in early June, I'm at the end of April," Pyrrha countered. "There's an entire month in between."

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that what I said is still true," Ruby rebuked.

Pyrrha just smiled at Ruby, she knew that they were going to be chatting the entire time if Ruby had her way with things. Deep down, Pyrrha was starting to think that Yang might be right about just having a good time with Ruby after all.

* * *

Once the two of them arrived at the carnival, Ruby was dragging Pyrrha all over the place, having them try all different kinds of things. There was a few small rides that were available, some stands with food and games, and places to buy different kinds of souvenirs. The boundless excitement in Ruby was certainly contagious, for Pyrrha was certainly feeling much happier than she originally anticipated.

Pyrrha was watching as Ruby was trying to play one of the carnival games and unfortunately, not doing well. It was the game where you had to throw a ball at three milk bottles and knock them over, but Ruby wasn't doing well at knocking them all down. As a result, Ruby was growing disheartened by her repeated failures. Pyrrha, wanting to change that frown and bring Ruby's smile back, decided to give her own shot at it. Given how she plays softball, she figured it would be a good way for her to show off and give Ruby something in return.

"Why don't you let me take a shot at it?" Pyrrha said smugly. Ruby looked a the grin on Pyrrha's face and knew that Pyrrha was capable of doing what she herself could not.

The guy in charge of the stand didn't know what he was getting himself into and handed Pyrrha the softball. Instantly upon picking it up, Pyrrha noticed the difference between a normal softball, and the one that she was holding in her hand. This one was much lighter than normal, something she hadn't been expecting, but after thinking about it, it helped paint a picture of what it was that was happening with this game.

' _So it's rigged by having a lighter than normal ball, and I can only assume that there are weights in the bottom of the bottles,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself as she thought about how to go about doing this. ' _So, I guess I just gotta hit it in the right spot._ '

Taking a deep breath, Pyrrha chose her target well, and taking a pitchers stance, she wound up her throw. Letting the ball loose at a powerful speed, she hit exactly where she wanted to, right at the very bottom of the pyramid. Even with the weights in the bottom two bottles, they couldn't withstand the pressure and were knocked aside, leaving the top bottle to drop and fall to the side easily.

Knowing that he had been beaten, the person in charge of the carnival game was forced to give Pyrrha her prize, and Pyrrha chose a large stuffed wolf. Once she was given the prize, she immediately handed it to Ruby. "Really?" Ruby asked when Pyrrha was handing her the prize.

"Well, I know you were looking to get that, and I wanted to do something nice for you," Pyrrha admitted. "You've been so nice to me tonight, and have been showing me a good time I felt like it was important that I give back to you as well."

"Oh my god you're the best!" Ruby proclaimed as she hugged Pyrrha. Pyrrha felt her face go red and her heart soar as high as it possibly could. After the embrace, Ruby saw how red Pyrrha got and went into full apology mode. "Oh my god I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you would get like that from a hug and I forgot about, er, you know."

Shaking her head, Pyrrha watched Ruby fumble over her words. "Er, it's fine, don't worry about it, Ruby," Pyrrha said. "I know you didn't mean to do that. Come on, let's go throw you prize into the car so we don't have to carry it around everywhere we go."

* * *

Towards the end of the day, Pyrrha and Ruby were on the Ferris Wheel, looking out at the horizon as they went up towards the top of the wheel. Pyrrha had to admit, today was much better than she could have imagined when Ruby presented the idea to her. Just being around Ruby was enough to remind her of why she fell in love with the girl in the first place, and even though they weren't there together, they were still there as friends.

In this moment of tranquility, Pyrrha slid over next to Ruby and leaned onto the smaller girl, oblivious to the fact that she was practically cuddling up with her. Ruby however, had noticed and wanted to make sure that Pyrrha was truly ok with doing that.

"Hey uh, Pyrrha?"

Hearing her name, Pyrrha instantly snapped back to reality and pushed herself away from Ruby. "Oh my god, Ruby, I'm so sorry I don't know what came over me right then and there," Pyrrha said, rambling as she felt scared that she ruined the moment by doing something subconsciously. "We were having such a good time and I wasn't doing anything at all that made things awkward and now I've gone and done that and you're probably mad at me and-"

It took Ruby wrapping Pyrrha up in a hug before the rambling stopped. "Er, Ruby? Why are you hugging me right now?"

"Because I don't want you to feel bad about that," Ruby said. "I didn't mind you doing that, but I wanted to be sure that you were fine with doing that first. I didn't mean to make you feel nervous."

Hearing Ruby's sincerity, Pyrrha wanted to just enjoy the moment with Ruby, to forget all of their troubles and sit with each other, whether as friends or something more. "Do you er, mind if we go back to hugging each other and cuddling up for a bit while we're on here?" Pyrrha asked nervously.

"Of course," Ruby replied. Wrapping one arm around Pyrrha's back and leaning into the taller girls Ruby wrapping her arms around her, Pyrrha was happy that they could still be friends, even with all of her woes.

"I really enjoyed today."

It wasn't a surprise when Pyrrha heard Ruby say that about their day. Truth be told, she herself had believed that today was a wonderful reprieve from all that they have dealt with in the time since Pyrrha confessed. Right now though, Pyrrha was just happy to have Ruby with her to share this perfect moment.

"Thank you," Pyrrha said.

"For what?"

"For bringing me out here," Pyrrha said. "And for showing me a wonderful time that I got to spend with you."

Seeing Pyrrha's smile beam widely, Ruby couldn't help but feel proud of being the reason why it was there in the first place.

"Any time, Pyrrha, any time."

* * *

 **AN: Ok, so we really need some happy Pyrrha after the past few episodes. Fortunately this chapter is perfectly timed to provide us with just that!**

 **So, I actually have ideas for new stories, but the thing with that is, I won't even think about starting them until this is finished. I have a couple of chapters to write out left, only thing is, they are mostly fluff and I am not that great with fluff (don't be confused by this chapter though, it was just a stroke of luck if you ask me). So hopefully we can see more Victory Rose stories from me in the near future!**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, feel free to fave/follow/review, and I hope to see you guys soon!**


	18. Celebrate

Pyrrha couldn't help but stare out the window of Yang's car. She was in a good mood and it didn't seem like there was much that could ruin it for her. For Pyrrha, having a day like today, where she could just sit back and enjoy the scenery without having anything to worry about was a nice change from what she usually had to deal with. Deep down, Pyrrha hoped the rest of the weekend lasted as great as it was now.

It certainly helped when you were told that your cousin managed to convince her parents to let you and your friends borrow their woodland lodge for the weekend so that they could celebrate your birthday that was happening that weekend. But also having your school's softball team win an important game a few hours before you left was an added bonus as well.

Even though Pyrrha's birthday was on a Monday, her cousin decided that she needed to have a full weekend to celebrate the occasion. Pyrrha knew it was made into this big of a deal because of what she had gone through 6 months ago now, but she wasn't going to tell her cousin not to do this for her because of that. If Blake wanted to make a big deal over her birthday, and if she wanted to include all of Pyrrha's friends in the celebration, Pyrrha wouldn't tell her to stop. She actually thought it was a really sweet gesture on Blake's part.

So, Pyrrha just sat in the back seat of Yang's car, Ruby crushed in between herself and Weiss while Blake was sitting up front with Yang giving the blonde directions. Behind Yang, Sun was driving himself Neptune, Sage, Scarlet and Penny, while Ren drove Nora and Jaune behind them. Pyrrha was glad that her friends were able to join them, and she was grateful that she had such wonderful friends in the first place.

It also reminded her of the fact that outside of this car, none of her friends knew that she was living with Yang and Ruby. She had made a point to Ruby and Yang that she would be the one to tell them, when she was ready to do so. Weiss was easy to ask about the issue, she was one of the few people who understood family problems and the need to keep some things private, and Blake was her cousin and wouldn't want to hurt Pyrrha.

' _Maybe I'll tell everyone about this finally,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself as she stared out the window. ' _I think that I've kept this from them for far too long. They deserve to know about this._ '

By the time they finally reached the lodge, it was starting to get dark out. Blake walked over to the lodge to unlock the door while the rest of the gang got all of their stuff out of the cars and started to bring it inside. They took a look around at what was available and it amazed them what they saw. The lodge was a pretty big place, and Blake always loved coming up her during the winter holidays. Pyrrha didn't even remember the last time she was here, but it was some time ago, way before she left home. She had actually gotten an invite to join the Belladonna family this holiday season, but since she still didn't know what was going on with her family yet, Pyrrha was forced to decline. To be here now, it was a sweet feeling that she got.

"Ok, since we're here for Pyrrha's birthday, she get's the master bedroom this weekend," Blake called out. I'll bring each of you to your rooms, and once Pyrrha gets her stuff away she can help too. So, first things first, Sun, Neptune come with me." Picking up their bags, Sun and Neptune followed Blake down towards the rooms they would be staying in during the weekend.

"This certainly is a quaint little place now, isn't it," Scarlet said with his british accent. "Even has cell service."

"And it has wifi, though you'd have to ask Blake for the password," Pyrrha jumped in. "I don't even remember the last time I was up here." Pyrrha picked up her bag and walked upstairs to the master bedroom. She figured that Blake would be the one to take it, but as Blake put it, she was the birthday girl here, so she got the best room in the house. Once she put her belongings into the room, she walked back down to start bringing people up to their rooms for the weekend.

"Ruby, could you follow me?" Pyrrha asked. "I'll take you up to your room."

Silently, Ruby smiled and followed Pyrrha to their destination. Things had gotten much better between Ruby and Pyrrha since the first game of softball season, and they both noticed it. Pyrrha was really putting in the effort to be more sociable with Ruby, while Ruby made sure to give Pyrrha the space that she needed whenever she did need it. Often when Pyrrha asked to be alone, she immediately followed it by making plans for the two to hang out the very next day they could.

Pyrrha decided to put Ruby in the room right next door to her own, whether it was because she wanted Ruby to be close or in case something happened during the night and she wanted to be comforted, Pyrrha didn't know, and she didn't care. This is what she wanted to do, and that wasn't going to change.

"So, where are you going to be in?" Ruby asked once she took a look around at the room.

"Oh, I'm actually right at the end of this hall, right down there," Pyrrha mentioned, pointing to the doorway to her room. "Anyway, I gotta get back to helping everyone to their rooms."

Pyrrha turned around and quickly made her way back down the stairs, giving Ruby a chance to unpack anything she needed to unpack. Once she got down there, Pyrrha noticed that only Yang, Weiss, Nora and Ren were left. ' _Blake must've led Scarlet, Sage, Jaune and Penny to their rooms all at once_.' She thought to herself. "Ok, Yang, Weiss, follow me. Nora, Ren, just let Blake know to put the two of you in the same room. You'd just end up in one room anyway."

"Will do cap'n!" Nora called out, standing at attention and saluting Pyrrha. Pyrrha, for her part, just giggled and turned around to lead Weiss and Yang to their room. Once she was done with that, Pyrrha noticed that people were starting to come back down to the living room. Jaune, Scarlet, Sun, Neptune, Penny and Blake were all in the living room chatting with one another, and Pyrrha noticed that Ruby was making her way down to join them. Most of her friends had gotten changed into their pajamas for the night since they were going to be staying in.

Pyrrha walked up to her room at that point and got changed herself. This weekend was a chance to relax and that was what she was going to do. Changing into her pajamas, Pyrrha soon went back down to rejoin the others in the living room. The fire was going and people were sitting in a giant circle around it with a couple of drinks out. Pyrrha herself wasn't going to join them, she had decided that she would do her best to avoid drinking as much as she could. Even though she knew a beer or two wouldn't hurt her, she felt it was better for her personally if she tried to avoid it as much as possible. The fear of becoming and alcoholic like her father used to be was always making her cautious about it after she left her old home.

Once she joined the group, everyone cheered, Pyrrha taking the moment to bow over-dramatically for the occasion. "Thank you all, it bring me great honor that you bestow such an applause upon me!" Pyrrha joked.

"Miss Pyrrha," Neptune whimpered, getting down on his knees and bowing before her. "Would you grant me an autograph?"

"Ok Neptune, get up," Pyrrha said, taking a seat between Ruby and Blake. Neptune, for his part returned to his seat shaking his head. "Let's just enjoy our time here. We don't get to all hang out like this too often, so why not take advantage of that?"

"I'm down," Sun commented. "So, what do you guys want to do exactly?"

"We could play a game," Jaune said. "I'm sure someone has something we could use for that."

"Depends on what it is though," Pyrrha mentioned.

"How about a drinking game?" Scarlet suggested.

"Yeah, that sound like fun!" Nora yelped.

As soon as that was suggested, Pyrrha knew she wouldn't be doing any drinking, though she would try to find some way to still be involved. "Well, I'm fine with joining, but I don't want to do any drinking, if that's fine by everyone."

"Oh come on," Sun retorted. He wasn't actually being serious, but unfortunately, some people didn't realize it. "We're here for your birthday, and if you're the one not getting plastered, then what's the point? Drink with us!"

"Yeah, besides, it's not like anything bad is going to happen," Neptune chimed in.

"I'll pass," Pyrrha monotonously replied.

"Lame," Sun said. "It'd be a great time."

"Sun could you just lay off for a bit?"

Hearing Ruby react like that was a surprise to everyone, especially Pyrrha. Ruby never seemed to get mad at anyone, especially not one of her friends. "Pyrrha doesn't want to drink, so just stop trying to force her into it, ok?"

It got uncomfortably silent for everyone in that moment. Pyrrha felt the most upset by this, mostly because they were all supposed to be there to have a happy time together. Now because of something that probably wasn't meant to be serious, her friends were getting upset at each other, and it was all because of her. She felt as if it was all her responsibility, and no one would be able to tell her otherwise.

Silently, she stood up and walked away from the group towards her room, her head hung low and her eyes nearly closed in sadness. She really felt bad at that moment, and all she wanted was to be alone, where she felt that she wouldn't cause any more harm. She knew that her friends were pleading with her to come back and join them, but everything they said was muted, their cries falling onto deaf ears. She walked up to her room and shut the door behind her, falling back onto it and sliding down to the floor where she let held her knees up to her chest and felt her head fall onto her knees as she felt like she was about to cry.

' _I guess after all this time, I'm still not over some of what happened,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself. ' _It's still my fault that things seem to go bad for me, whether it's with my parents, or now with my friends, or even with me and-_ '

"Pyrrha, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Hearing Ruby interrupt her train of thought surprised Pyrrha a bit, but she wasn't about to say no to Ruby coming in to speak with her privately. She took a moment to compose herself, then stood up and opened the door for Ruby to come in. She was thankful that Ruby was by herself out there, but she didn't know why Ruby was up here to begin with.

"What are you doing here, Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, her eyes red from crying. "Shouldn't you be down with everyone having fun without me?"

"Why would we be having fun without you?" Ruby asked back as she entered the room. "Everyone down there is upset and worried because you just walked off looking pretty sad. It may not be a surprise to me, Blake, Yang or Weiss, but everyone else is really confused seeing you like that. We just want to make sure you're ok."

"It's all my fault you know," Pyrrha replied, sitting down on the floor and leaning against the bed. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have had to yell at Sun."

"Sun should've just stopped what he was doing," Ruby replied. "He knows better than that with you."

"No he doesn't," Pyrrha admitted. Ruby was surprised to hear that at first, but then she figured out what Pyrrha meant by that. "I never told any of our friends about what happened to me, so they don't know about everything that I went through in the past six months."

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't want them to constantly worry about upsetting me," Pyrrha said. "I didn't want them to change how they act or what they say just for my sake. They're my friends for a reason and I don't want to force them into something they aren't."

"Are you going to talk to them about what happened though?" Ruby asked, sitting down next to Pyrrha and wrapping her arm around her.

"I was going to this weekend," Pyrrha mentioned. "Might have to do so in a few minutes now that I think about it."

Ruby hugged Pyrrha even tighter so that the older woman felt more confident in what she was about to do. Then Pyrrha felt something press against her cheek, the feeling of Ruby's lips kissing her there. Immediately upon feeling the contact, she turned red and her mind went nuts trying to figure out what had happened. Once Ruby pulled away, she looked at Pyrrha and realized the effect it had on her.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry," Ruby said. "I didn't realize it would make you that red."

"Why did you do that?" Pyrrha asked. She had her suspicions, but knowing how her luck was going in the love department, it was probably Ruby just trying to cheer her up.

"I just wanted to see you smile," Ruby admitted, practically confirming Pyrrha's thought on the matter. "Guess I forgot for a moment that we have this weird thing going on between us where we don't know if we're dating or not because of me. I don't know why, but I honestly just want to do that for you." Ruby in a moment of haste stood up and started to walk over to the door. "I'll give you a moment to yourself before you come back down, ok?"

With Ruby walking out the door, Pyrrha pressed her hand up to her cheek where Ruby had kissed her. She had no idea what it meant exactly, but unfortunately she didn't have time to dwell on it. She also had to figure that Ruby wasn't exactly going to be sharing with her why she felt like doing that in the first place.

Standing up, Pyrrha walked over to the mirror and looked at herself in it. She saw that her eyes were red, but her cheeks were blushed beyond all extent. Running over to the master bathroom, she splashed her face with some water to cool it off, and once she finished that, she dried her face and began to walk out the room.

The first things he noticed was that it was really quiet down in the living room, even though she knew that everyone was in there wondering what had happened with her. Now, she had to go and explain everything to her friends. This was no time to hold back, it was now or never. As she walked down the stairs, she found that her friends all turned to look in her direction and they waited for Pyrrha to reach the group. Once she did sit back down with them, it was still silent for a few moments, before Sun finally spoke up.

"Pyrrha, I wanted to apologize," Sun said. "It wasn't fair of me to do what I did, and even though I wasn't actually going to force you into it, you still didn't appreciate what I did and so I'm sorry."

"Sun, don't apologize," Pyrrha said. "There's something that you don't know about, that actually most of you don't know about. I'm sorry that I've been keeping this from you, but I couldn't bear having you guys try to change who you are because of me."

"What do you mean?" Penny asked.

Pyrrha looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. ' _Now or never,_ ' She thought to herself. Once she looked back up at her friends she finally revealed everything to them.

"About six months ago, after we all went to see that movie together, something happened with me," Pyrrha began. "My mother she, let's just say that she hurt me pretty badly, and leave it at that. After that happened, I left home that evening and ever since then, I've been living with Yang and Ruby. I've actually been adopted by their father since my mother was a wicked person, and has been ever since I was about 5 years old. While I managed to work things out with my father finally, I was upset with him for so long because of he was an alcoholic. That's the short version of what happened at least."

"Oh my god, that's terrible," Penny said.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sun asked. "You know we would've taken care of you, we would've helped you."

"I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want you guys to worry about me," Pyrrha said. "Besides, even if you didn't realize it before, you already have helped me out tremendously in the six months that have passed since I moved away." Pyrrha stood up suddenly and looked to everyone. "In all honesty, I couldn't ask for a better group of friends. Please, don't ever change on my account, I'd hate to be the reason you guys act differently around me."

"We'll always be your friends, Pyrrha," Scarlet said.

"Yeah," Yang proclaimed. "And if anyone tries to hurt you, I'll knock em out!"

Everyone stood up and wrapped Pyrrha up in one giant hug, hoping that having her friends there for her would allow Pyrrha to feel the love that she knew was there for her.

"Thank you guys," Pyrrha said as they held her. Once they let go, Pyrrha felt that it was time to cheer things up a bit. "Now, Sun, about this game you were talking about…"

* * *

 **AN: Well, now everyone knows about what happened to Pyrrha. Needed this chapter to happen since no one else knew about what Pyrrha went through outside of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. It shows that Pyrrha's friends are going to be there for her no matter what. (Also the irony that Jefardi had Pyrrha's 18th birthday in the 18th chapter of Acceptance, and this chapter is number 18, and it's Pyrrha's 18th birthday.)  
**

 **In other news, this story hit 264 follows, and 158 favorites! I'm super excited that it got so high, but I can anticipate that it'll get higher from here. Regardless, I can say with complete confidence that the next chapter is going to be the single best chapter in this story.**

 **Oh, you guys should go check out my new fic Forgive Me Ruby. It's a canonverse thing that takes place after V3E9 so there will be a few things different from canon after this last episode.**

 **Anyway, thank you guys for reading this story, I can't wait for next week because it's going to be awesome. You guys have a good evening.**


	19. Welcome to The Other Side

Pyrrha was pacing nervously around her room. Today was a pretty special day for the school, it was the date of the junior/senior prom, and everyone was bustling about trying to figure out how they looked, who had a date with who, the sort of thing that most normal students talked about. It was a day that most people would be extremely happy about, more than eager to take part in, but for Pyrrha, she could honestly say that she really wasn't looking forward to going to this event, not one bit. She wished that she could just spend the night in, but being the student class president, she really needed to be there.

It wasn't that Pyrrha hated the concept, it was just that she didn't have anyone to share the moment with. It was a moment that people normally would talk about for the rest of their lives, and Pyrrha was going on her own, no one had bothered to ask her to join them, even as friends. Pyrrha had some idea as to why she wasn't asked to go with anyone, she was the student class president, the captain of the softball team, pretty much everyone in the school liked her, but they were all afraid that they weren't good enough for her and decided that they weren't going to take the chance.

Yang and Weiss were going together, as were Ren and Nora. Sun invited Blake to attend with him, she could only guess that they had arranged it beforehand so that Pyrrha could have her cousin there as well. Even though Sun came with Blake, it was more so that Blake could be with her cousin, and so Sun was more or less going with Neptune, Scarlet, Sage, and Jaune since neither of them had dates either.

But what really killed her, was that Penny had suggested that Ruby go with her to the prom. Sure Penny had already said time and time again that it was strictly platonic, but Pyrrha couldn't help but feel hurt and jealous that Ruby was going with Penny instead of herself. She couldn't blame Penny for that though, Pyrrha could have easily asked Ruby to go with her instead, but she didn't think it would be wise to ask her that. They were fortunate though that they all got a table together, so at least Pyrrha wouldn't be sitting away from Ruby.

As Pyrrha was pacing, she knew that it was just a way to pass the time until she left to go to the party. She was supposed to get there early so that everything was ready to go, and so that she could speak with Ozpin about the speech that she was asked to give before the party truly got underway. She was already dressed up and ready to go, her hair was the way she wanted it to be, and the dress looked absolutely stunning on her. Even though she looked beautiful beyond comprehension, Pyrrha couldn't help but feel let down with herself and how she looked, because no one would seem to notice.

Looking over at the time, she knew that it was about time that she got going, so she walked out of her room and up to the living room where Taiyang was waiting with her father. Yang was on her way over to Weiss' house to pick her up for the dance, and Ruby was in her room getting dressed and wouldn't see Pyrrha until the dance itself. Once Pyrrha was in the living room, her father stood up and walked over to her.

"You look beautiful," Artemis said.

Pyrrha smiled at her father's kind words, he really had changed from all that time ago and she was reminded of that every single day. "Thanks dad," Pyrrha replied. "We should get going."

"Right, you have fun now, Pyrrha," Taiyang spoke up, giving Pyrrha a hug of his own before she walked out the door with her father. Pyrrha climbed into the passenger seat of his car and sighed. Once Artemis was in the car behind her, she let her smile fade away and she stared out the window.

"Ok, what's bothering you?"

Pyrrha turned when her father spoke to her, she could tell he knew there was something wrong with Pyrrha. "That obvious?"

"Yeah, you look like you want to just go back home and crawl into bed for the rest of the night," Artemis said.

In a way, Pyrrha felt like that was the exact way she felt. "I'm really not looking forward to this to be honest," Pyrrha began. "But before you say that I should just skip it, I have to give a speech at the event so I can't miss it."

"Ok, well why are you not looking forward to this?"

"Well..." Pyrrha took a moment to think about what it was she wanted to say, or more how to say what she needed to say. "I'm pretty much going by myself since no one asked me to go with them, and the one person who I would have loved to go with was asked to go with someone else as a friend. So she's going with another one of our friends because I was too scared to ask her to go with me."

"I'm guessing that you're talking about Ruby?" Artemis asked, getting a nod in response. "Ok, I don't know what there is I could tell you, but if I were to say anything, I would just say that since Ruby is going with this friend of yours as friends, then it shouldn't be that bad. Just try to enjoy this night as much as you can, it might turn out better than you could have thought possible."

"I know," Pyrrha said. She was thankful that her dad was trying to cheer her up, even if she knew it wouldn't be that easy to do. "Thanks dad, I really appreciate this."

"What kind of a father would I be if I didn't do everything I could to cheer you up?" Artemis asked. Not even a second later he realized the irony of his statement and spoke up again. "On second thought, don't answer that."

"Hahaha, you know I love you dad, even after all we've been through," Pyrrha said, glad that her dad gave her a nice little laugh. After a few more minutes had passed, Pyrrha saw the school come into view, and she steeled herself for what she was expecting to be a long night. "Alright, I'll probably get a ride back with Ruby when her dad comes to pick her up."

"Don't forget to have fun Pyrrha," Artemis said once Pyrrha stepped out of the car in front of the school. She was one of the only few people there, people weren't going to be showing up this early unless they had to, but she could tell that they were going to be coming really soon.

She reached deep down and found that cheerful mask she hadn't used in such a long time and walked through the door.

* * *

The party was well underway not much later. Pyrrha was walking around, making sure to speak with as much of the people as she could, she was always a courteous person after all. As people were filing in, they were talking among themselves, though Pyrrha hadn't gotten the chance to sit down and chat with any of her friends yet since she was so busy.

Pyrrha realized that she would be needing to give her speech soon, so she walked over to one of the doors so she could get some fresh air for a moment. She saw that Sun and Neptune were outside as well, chatting among themselves. Pyrrha waved to them as the two turned around and noticed her, then she walked up to them.

"Hey, you look nice tonight," Sun remarked.

"Thanks, I could say the same to the two of you as well," Pyrrha replied. "I hope that my cousin is still having a good time as your date."

"Yeah, as far as I can tell," Sun said. "She was talking with Ruby and Yang when I came out here with Neptune, but she knows that I'm here."

"As long as she's having a good time, that's all I'm worried about," Pyrrha replied. Hearing about her cousin was putting a smile on her face, it gave her a chance to forget her own problems.

"You're date's not going to beat us up or anything for chatting with you, right?" Neptune asked.

Hearing Neptune ask that, it was a surprise, but she knew it was bound to happen eventually. "I don't think you have to worry about that," Pyrrha said as she walked between the two guys and stared out into the night sky. She closed her eyes and let out a deep heavy sigh, the kind that you hear when someone is upset about one thing or another. "There is no guy."

"Wait, what?" Sun asked. He was surprised, along with Neptune, but the usual energy in his voice was gone, and he couldn't help but feel terrible knowing that Pyrrha was here on her own.

"No one asked me to go with them," Pyrrha replied. She turned around to look at the two of them, drawing on every ounce of strength she had not to cry. "I've been blessed with incredible talents, and I've been given opportunities to become a tremendous success, yet the one thing that I've always failed at, if making true friends. Outside of you guys, and the rest of our merry band of troublemakers, I don't have many other friends. Sure, people may like me and think that I'm a nice person, but because of that, everyone assumes that I'm too good for them and that means, often times I'm alone."

Sun and Neptune were speechless, hearing about how Pyrrha was dealing with this, it was hard to fathom. Before any of them could do anything else, Pyrrha started to make her way back inside. "Sorry, but I need to get back inside. Got a speech to give." The two of them watched as Pyrrha shut the door behind her, just enough to leave Sun and Neptune enough room to walk back in whenever they felt like it.

As Pyrrha walked over to the stage, she slowly began to calm herself and put the mask back on her face from before. She walked onto the stage with Professor Ozpin, who took the microphone and began to speak.

"Good evening," He said. "Tonight, is a night that will be memorable for most, if not all of you. You have gone through another year, made great memories and have taken many obstacles thrown at you and overcame them. Each of you is here to have a good time, but don't forget that without the people around you, most of this wouldn't have been possible. You are the future leaders of society, the artists, the teachers, the ones who will carry the world on your shoulders. So take this night and enjoy all that you have accomplished, because your journeys are just beginning."

Once Ozpin finished speaking, it was now up to Pyrrha to give a speech. Taking the microphone after him, Pyrrha took a deep breath and began what she wanted to say.

"Hello," Pyrrha said. "So, how many of you guys are enjoying yourselves so far?" After seeing quite a large portion of the crowd raise their hand, Pyrrha continued. "Well, I only hope that after tonight you' will have truly enjoyed this night, because it's one that I'm hoping will turn out to be incredible as well. We've all come so far and we've all faced much along the way, but we all went through it together. We've all helped each other through thick and thin, even when the people around you didn't realize it."

Pyrrha didn't notice that up above her, one of her classmates was planning something truly despicable. Cardin Winchester, the schools bully, was up above the stage on the scaffolding, with a large bucket willed to the brim with grape Koolaid. He was planning on dumping the bucket right onto Pyrrha's head when she didn't expect it, and now that Pyrrha was in position, he was going to unleash his prank.

"I know that many of you guys hear this enough already, but I'm truly grateful that I can call you guys my friends, and that we can-"

One moment Pyrrha was speaking to her classmates, the next, she felt five gallons of grape Koolaid being dumped all over her. Pyrrha tensed her body up once she finally felt the liquid soak her, and she froze up on the spot. Pyrrha's eyes went wide and she felt embarrassed over what had happened. As she looked out into the audience, many of the students were shocked as well, but there was a large chunk of the populace that was laughing, though they were laughing mostly because of what had happened, even though they felt bad for Pyrrha.

Pyrrha finally regained control over her body, and she looked down at herself. Her arms were stained a slight bit purple, and her dress was ruined. Pyrrha could only imagine what had happened to her hair and how bad that appeared. Closing her eyes, she couldn't fight back the tears any longer. She walked off the stage, holding herself as she cried her way out of the gymnasium and away from everyone.

Realizing just how upset Pyrrha was over this, all the laughing stopped dead in it's tracks. The only person who was still laughing was Cardin, who was stuck atop the scaffolding of the stage and unable to leave. People were starting to realize just what Cardin had done and they were beginning to get mad at what just happened.

Ruby had watched as Pyrrha left, she could see that tears were in her eyes, and there were a million thoughts running through her head. As she just sat there, shocked at what had happened, Ruby noticed Weiss having to hold Yang back from going up to Cardin and beating the crap out of him. It didn't help that Scarlet, Sage, Sun and Neptune were already heading over there themselves, though Blake tried to talk with Sun beforehand. Still, Ruby wondered why no one was following Pyrrha.

"Why isn't anyone going after Pyrrha?" Ruby asked.

Sun, who was in the middle of speaking with Blake already had the answer, and so he was actually able to say what was going on. "What do you mean?"

"Why isn't Pyrrha's date trying to go after her?"

Sun realized that Ruby didn't know about what he had heard moments ago. "Ruby, Pyrrha came here by herself," Sun said. "No one asked her to go with them, so she doesn't have anyone here that would comfort her."

' _Oh my god,_ ' Ruby realized. ' _Pyrrha was hoping that I would go with her. Now I've let her down, and I feel terrible and I wish there was something I could do to make things right._ '

Ruby started to feel driven into action. So, with nothing to hold her back, she stood up. "I'm going to find her," Ruby proclaimed, making her way out of the gymnasium to follow Pyrrha.

Once she was outside, Ruby had a million thoughts running through her head. ' _I hope Pyrrha doesn't run off again to places unknown,_ ' Ruby thought to herself as she tried following the drops of Koolaid coming off of Pyrrha. ' _I can't believe how much I've failed her. She was relying on me and I let her down. I just want to cheer her up, hold her until she feels better, give her all the love that she..._ '

It was with that thought that Ruby finally realized something very important. She finally had her answer for Pyrrha. She could finally tell Pyrrha that she felt the same way that she did.

With renewed drive, Ruby all but ran to Pyrrha, hoping that she hadn't gotten too far ahead. Following the trail left behind, Ruby soon found herself coming up on the school's courtyard, with Pyrrha seated at one of the benches within the courtyard under the light. Ruby could tell that Pyrrha was in tears, and Ruby wanted nothing more than to wipe those tears away. With a deep breath, Ruby walked forward, knowing that once she was finished, Pyrrha would be a much happier person, and they would be starting their lives together.

* * *

As Pyrrha walked through the halls, she felt all of the emotions that had been plaguing her over the course of the night crash down on her. Pyrrha was in tears, holding herself and hoping that her nightmare would be over soon. She was half tempted to call her dad and ask him to bring her home, but she couldn't bear to go back inside and face the crowd of people that was laughing over her misery.

Pyrrha just wandered about until she eventually came upon the school's courtyard, and she decided that she needed to sit down now that she was all alone. Pyrrha started to sob loudly into her hands, the stickiness of the koolaid felt all across her body. Her dress was ruined, her hair was a mess, she knew right then and there that her night was forever ruined and she would become a laughing stock.

In her misery, she failed to notice that someone had come up to her, and that they were right in front of her.

"Pyrrha?"

Looking up in surprise, Pyrrha saw Ruby look at her with incredible concern in her eyes. She couldn't bear to face Ruby right now though, not while she was the way that she was. "Ruby, please just, leave me alone, ok?"

"No, not when you need someone to be here for you right now," Ruby proclaimed. She took a seat right next to Pyrrha, grabbing Pyrrha's hands and holding them in her own, despite how sticky she was.

"Ruby please," Pyrrha pleaded. "I look like a mess right now, and everyone is laughing at me so please just, let me be alone, ok?"

"Pyrrha," Ruby began to say. "You're wrong on so many accounts right now. First, once people saw how upset you were, the room went dead silent, no more laughing. Looking back on it, you'll probably laugh at it after today is done. And to be quite honest, I could care less if you look like a mess right now, you're my friend and you I know that you need a friend more than anything right now."

"Ruby, no!" Pyrrha yelled as she stood up and walked away from Ruby. "Why are you trying to help me right now? Shouldn't you be off with Penny having fun?"

Ruby didn't realize just how upset Pyrrha was over that detail. She knew that Pyrrha would have wanted to go, but in Ruby's mind, it would have been too awkward if she had asked Pyrrha to go with her, and Pyrrha didn't ask her to go at the same time. Ruby realized that she was part of the problem since she was going with Penny instead of her.

Pyrrha, for her part had realized what she was doing, and she calmed down. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that."

"No, don't be upset at yourself," Ruby said in response. "I do deserve it because I know how upset you would be over that." Ruby walked over to Pyrrha and grabbed a hold of her hand once again. "But please, just listen to me for a second, ok?"

Pyrrha felt Ruby lead her back over to the bench, and the two of them sat down together. "I don't know why it took me this long, but I think seeing you look so upset, it set something off inside of me. I felt a need to comfort you, to hold you until the sun came up so that you could smile. I'm sorry that it took me so long to realize how I feel, but because of what happened, I found the answer that I was looking for."

When Pyrrha was listening to Ruby speak, she could feel her heart racing, she could feel the thundering of her heart within her own chest. She could only imagine what it was that Ruy was trying to tell her, but somehow, she knew the answer all along. "Ruby, are you trying to..." The words couldn't form in her mouth, her tears coming back and keeping her from speaking any more.

"What I'm trying to say to you Pyrrha, is that I've finally realized just what you mean to me," Ruby said, moving closer to Pyrrha. "You mean so much to me Pyrrha, and there isn't a day that goes by now that I don't want to be without you. I guess it took me so long to realize this, but I've fallen in love with you."

Pyrrha couldn't so much as speak, she held a hand over her mouth, hoping that Ruby couldn't hear how weak and pathetic she sounded. "I'm really sorry that it-"

Instead of letting Ruby continue, Pyrrha dove right on top of her and locked her lips with Ruby's. Ruby's back connected with the bench, and she felt Pyrrha's weight on top of her as the two of them kissed. Pyrrha's hair fell all around her face, but she didn't care, she finally had the one thing that she wanted more than anything else in the past few months, Ruby's declaration that she was in love with her. She had spent so long waiting for this one moment, now that it was here, there wasn't going to be a thing in this world that would stop her from letting it end.

As Pyrrha snaked her arms between Ruby and the bench that they were atop of, she became more ferocious with her kiss, letting her passion envelop her even more and drive everything that she was doing. She wasn't letting this end, not so long as she had a choice in the matter. It was only when she needed to breathe did Pyrrha finally lift her lips off of Ruby's, though her face was still mere inches over Ruby's. She could see just how red Ruby's cheeks were, her kiss having a clearly profound effect on the younger girl.

"Wow," Ruby breathed out. It was the only thing that she could think to say in the moment.

Realizing what she was doing, Pyrrha felt a little embarrassed over her actions, though she did nothing to move from the position she was in. "Hehe, sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away."

"That's an understatement," Ruby replied. "Though, I didn't mind you getting carried away if I were to be honest."

Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle at that, and she soon returned to kissing Ruby, though she was more soft in how she went about doing so. With lips still locked, Pyrrha helped Ruby sit back up and soon the two of them let the kiss end, only to stare into each others eyes.

"You really have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that," Pyrrha stated.

"I'm sorry that I kept you waiting for so long," Ruby replied. "I guess it's partially my fault that you have been under so much stress in recent months."

Before Ruby could go on, Pyrrha held her hand up to Ruby's mouth and held it shut. "Ruby, don't ever think for a second that I'm upset over how long it took for you to realize just what it was that you felt for me," Pyrrha said. "I would rather have waited for a long time before knowing the answer, rather than make you feel as though you had to rush your heart. My heart has been through so much that it's grown into something stronger than ever, strengthened by all that I've been through in my life. I know that sometimes it takes time before we understand why things went the way they did, but in all honesty, I'm just glad that you found out your feelings the way you knew that you would."

Pyrrha stood up for a moment, bringing Ruby along with her and giving the two some space to move. Once Pyrrha stopped walking, she wrapped her arm around Ruby's body, resting her hand in the small of Ruby's back. Her other hand held onto Ruby's, and Pyrrha felt the shorter girl leave her remaining hand on her shoulder. As Ruby was looking up at Pyrrha for guidance, Pyrrha started to sway back and forth, dancing when there wasn't any music to dance to. Pyrrha led Ruby through the motions as they danced together, sharing another moment of joy between the two.

Ruby didn't care that her dress was going to be ruined because Pyrrha was sticky from that prank that Cardin played, she didn't care that the two of them looked ridiculous the way they were. Pyrrha didn't care that she was the victim of a cruel and senseless prank from Cardin, she didn't care that she looked like someone had just ruined her entire night, she didn't care that her the makeup she put on was ruined, or that the dress was all but destroyed. What Ruby and Pyrrha cared about most at that moment, was that they were sharing a once in a lifetime moment together that would never be ruined by anything.

"Hey, Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Does this mean that we're, together now?" Pyrrha asked, hoping that she didn't ruin the moment.

Ruby only needed to look at Pyrrha and smile as they continued to dance. "I guess this does mean we're together after all."

Letting the moment go on, Pyrrha decided that she wanted to just stay with Ruby, not saying anything and quietly dancing the night away. She loved the way they were right then and there, with Ruby in her arms holding her as the two of them danced together as a couple. Pyrrha leaned her head down to Ruby, giving her a kiss as a little reminder that this moment was perfect for them. If there was a way to describe Pyrrha in that moment, it would be perfect. She had the love she had sought after for so long in her arms, and nothing could ever take the moment away from her.

Pyrrha felt at peace, the night was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and the stars were shining brightly above them. Nobody knew that the two of them were there, so that meant no interruptions. Pyrrha was truly in love with this moment. She looked up and saw how beautiful the night sky was, and then beckoned Ruby to do the same. Once the younger girl looked up, Pyrrha could see her silver eyes shine with glee as she stared up into the night sky. "It's so beautiful," Ruby said.

"It certainly is," Pyrrha replied. "The stars look great too."

Ruby laughed at her new girlfriends attempt at flirting, though Pyrrha didn't know how well it would go for her. "I'm flattered that you think I'm beautiful."

"Well, you definitely look better than I do right now," Pyrrha said. "I look like I went swimming in a pool of grape juice."

For some reason Ruby kissed Pyrrha, right on the cheek. Even though Pyrrha got red in the face because of it, Ruby was pondering something right afterwards. "Oh, I know what that is!" Ruby yelled out after a minute. "It's grape Koolaid!"

And with that simple statement, Pyrrha's face went from blushing furiously, to completely expressionless. "You had to kiss my cheek just to tell me that I taste like grape Koolaid?"

"Well, it's the simplest way of doing so, and I got to enjoy doing it too!" Ruby replied.

Seeing Ruby's absolute cheer gave Pyrrha a smile. "Alright, I guess that's understandable," Pyrrha said. "Though, I should probably get back inside, I was cut off in the middle of my speech, so I probably should finish that."

Hand in hand, Ruby and Pyrrha slowly made their way back towards the gymnasium, fully ready to enjoy the rest of their night together.

* * *

Back in the gym, not a single person was having a good time. Seeing the one person who had been the nicest person that they ever could have imagined looking like she was nothing more than a kicked puppy was hard to take in, and each and every one of them felt hurt because of it. The only good news about what had happened, was that Cardin got what was coming to him well before any of the teachers could apprehend him, Scarlet and Sage saw to that personally.

Yang was sitting at the table next to Weiss, and Penny Blake and Sun all sat with them, holding the same disheartened expressions on their faces. "This sucks," Yang said.

"Well, at least Cardin got what was coming to him," Sun said.

"Not enough in my book," Blake groaned.

Not a moment later, they all noticed something that shocked each and every one of them. All of the students in the gymnasium turned to see Pyrrha strutting back into the room looking like she was on top of the world despite her outward appearance. Ruby walked in with her, but stopped at the entranceway and let Pyrrha go on up to the stage herself. Despite how much different Pyrrha looked compared to Ruby, it was easy to see that some of what had stuck to Pyrrha had gotten stuck to Ruby as well. Regardless, all eyes were on Pyrrha as she returned to the stage so that she could speak.

Tapping on the microphone to make sure that it worked, Pyrrha got everyone's attention. "Well uh, normally I would check above me to see if there was any other surprises in store for me, but I guess I already look like I went for a swim in a grape pond, so it probably wouldn't matter at this point."

Hearing everyone chuckling was a good start, it meant that people weren't going to say that what she was doing was uncalled for. "Anyway, where was I exactly?" Pyrrha went on. "Oh, that's right." Pyrrha took a pause to gather her words back together, before she had a thought pass through her head that she was considering.

"You know, earlier in the night, right after all of this went down," Pyrrha said as she gestured to her dress and hair. "I was really embarrassed and thought that this night was ruined for me. But, after having a nice chat with, probably the person who is really and truly my best friend and more, I realized that this night wasn't ruined because of some stupid prank that will probably get Cardin suspended for a few days. You guys all showed that, while it was funny to see someone getting Koolaid dumped on them, you truly do care about how I'm feeling. I honestly couldn't ask for a better group of friends, to know each and every single one of you wonderful people."

Pyrrha looked out and saw that people were smiling once again, she really did a great job with what it was that she had said. "You know, if someone has a video of what happened, I actually wouldn't mind seeing that. Looking back on what happened, it is pretty funny," Pyrrha mentioned.

She really did have to hand it to everyone, they really did like the fact that she was feeling much better about this. "So, I hope that you guys have fun tonight," Pyrrha went on. "It's already had some pretty interesting moments happen, so why should we let one person getting Koolaid dumped on them ruin the night? I for one, would like to have some fun tonight, and if anyone is up to dancing with me then I'd be more than happy to oblige, provided you don't mind the fact that I'm all sticky, and not in that way." Pyrrha knew that what she said could be taken out of context given what it was that she had said. "I know some of you are thinking that way, you know who you are."

Getting a good chuckle from the crowd, Pyrrha went on to finish her speech. "So please, have fun, don't be afraid to ask for a dance with me, I'd be more than happy to, but my first dance is spoken for. Now, maestro? Let's turn up the beat!"

With a ravenous applause, Pyrrha signaled the DJ to start playing the music and get the real party started.

* * *

By the time the party was over, Pyrrha was just about spent. Most of the student body had gone home by that point, and Pyrrha herself was ready to get home. She could tell that Ruby was tired just as much as she was, because she started to lean on Pyrrha's shoulder and rest. Yang had gone back to Weiss' house and was planning on spending the night there, Sun had driven Blake back home, and the rest of the gang had gone home or to places they felt they wanted to go for fun. Penny had understood when Ruby had told her about how she was going to spend the rest of the evening with Pyrrha, and Penny made sure that Pyrrha wasn't too upset over the whole event.

Ruby had called her dad and asked her to pick the two of them up a few moments ago, and so they were merely waiting outside for Ruby's father to arrive. Pyrrha was content though, she was finally glad to call Ruby her girlfriend, and while she had Ruby resting against her shoulder, Pyrrha also had her hand in Ruby's.

"Hey Pyrrha?"

Hearing Ruby speak up was a bit of a surprise to Pyrrha. "Yeah?"

"Do you think we should tell my dad and Yang about us?" Ruby asked. Pyrrha had to figure that Ruby was only trying to look out for her and make sure she was comfortable, but to Pyrrha it wasn't necessary. "I know that my dad probably wouldn't mind, but if you don't feel comfortable with it just yet-"

"I appreciate the thought, Ruby," Pyrrha interrupted. "But, I don't mind telling your father or Yang. Your father took me into his home, it's only fair that he knows about our relationship."

Snuggling up to Pyrrha's arm, Ruby was more than happy that she made the decision she did. "Alright," Ruby said.

It was only a few minutes later that Ruby's father showed up. He got out of the car and saw Pyrrha and Ruby and he wondered just what had happened. "Wow, I guess that's why Ruby asked me to bring some towels with me," Taiyang said once he looked over to Pyrrha. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Well, let's just say that someone had a really bad idea for a prank involving Koolaid," Pyrrha said.

"And why do you look like you have some of it on you?" Taiyang asked Ruby.

"Well, I was the person who cheered her up, so that explains why I got some on me, though not as much," Ruby replied as she started to nod off.

Taiyang started up the car and began to bring the two girls home. "Alright, well, I guess you two need to get some sleep."

"You could say that again," Pyrrha mentioned.

It wasn't too long before Pyrrha realized that they were home, and she knew immediately what it was that she wanted to do. She went down to her room and took off the dress, hanging it up so that it didn't get any dirtier than it already was. Once she was out of the dress, she grabbed a towel and ran up to the shower. As she opened the door, she almost walked in on Ruby as she was about to jump in too.

"Oh god, I'm sorry!" Pyrrha nearly shouted. Taiyang had gone to sleep immediately, so Pyrrha tried to keep her voice down. "I didn't realize you were in there."

"No no, I should be sorry," Ruby replied. "Should have realized that you wanted to shower, you know, since you're hair looks purple."

"Wait, really?" Pyrrha said, all but running into the bathroom to look into the mirror. Ruby barely had enough time to cover herself up before Pyrrha jumped in. Normally it wouldn't be much of an issue for Ruby to have Pyrrha in the bathroom with her in such a way. Now that they were dating though, it was much different, but Ruby knew that it would change with time. "Oh god, this is going to take an hour to get out."

"Do you want to jump into the shower first?" Ruby offered.

"You sure?" Pyrrha asked. "I don't want to make you wait since you were pretty much up here first."

"No offense, but I'm pretty sure you need one more than I do right now," Ruby said. "I mean, you're covered in Koolaid, why wouldn't you need one?"

Smiling, Pyrrha gave Ruby a chaste kiss. "You're really the best, you know that?" Pyrrha said as she walked towards the shower.

Ruby, gave her a smile before walking out the door and letting Pyrrha use the shower. Once she was out, Pyrrha smiled and disrobed herself so she could clean off her body and get to bed after such a long eventful day. "I guess dad was right," She whispered to herself once she turned on the shower and climbed inside. "Tonight turned out to be a night I'll never forget."

* * *

 **AN: *Insert it's happening gif here* You have no idea how long I've been holding onto this chapter before today, and I'm super freaking happy that I finally get to publish this chapter! Everything that has been published thus far has all been culminating into this one chapter, where everything reaches a point where it can no longer be contained.**

 **I personally wanted to thank every single one of you guys who has followed, favorited, reviewed this story thus far. You guys are what has kept it going and this story wouldn't be anywhere near where it is without you guys backing me up and showing me just how much you love reading this.**

 **Side note, before I end the chapter, I wrote out not one but TWO omakes based off of the last scene, for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **OMAKE:** "Do you want to jump into the shower first?" Ruby offered.

"You sure?" Pyrrha asked. "I don't want to make you wait since you were pretty much up here first."

"No offense, but I'm pretty sure you need one more than I do right now," Ruby said. "I mean, you're covered in Koolaid, why wouldn't you need one?"

Smiling, Pyrrha gave Ruby a chaste kiss. "You're really the best, you know that?" Pyrrha said as she walked towards the shower.

Ruby, gave her a smile before walking out the door and letting Pyrrha use the shower. Before she could reach it though, Pyrrha grabbed her arm and held her back for a second. "Do you er, you know, want to uh..."

"What is it?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing," Pyrrha swiftly replied. "Just me reaching too far ahead in our relationship when we aren't ready for stuff yet." Quickly she shoved Ruby out the door before the younger girl could get any ideas on what Pyrrha had actually meant by that statement.

* * *

 **OMAKE 2:** "Do you want to jump into the shower first?" Ruby offered.

"You sure?" Pyrrha asked. "I don't want to make you wait since you were pretty much up here first."

"No offense, but I'm pretty sure you need one more than I do right now," Ruby said. "I mean, you're covered in Koolaid, why wouldn't you need one?"

Smiling, Pyrrha gave Ruby a chaste kiss. "You're really the best, you know that?" Pyrrha said as she walked towards the shower.

Ruby, gave her a smile before walking out the door and letting Pyrrha use the shower. Before she could reach it though, Pyrrha grabbed her arm and held her back for a second. "Do you er, you know, want to uh..."

"What is it?" Ruby asked.

"Do you want to, you know, join me in the shower?" Pyrrha asked, her face turning redder than her hair. Hearing the question, Ruby's face turned red as well. "I, figured I could, you know, use some help with my hair and...yeah I'll shut up now."

"Well that got steamy," Ruby said in response.

Almost instantly, Pyrrha kicked Ruby out of the bathroom for the terrible pun that she had just made. "No, this bathroom is a pun free zone. Girlfriend or not, I'm not having any puns made while I'm taking my shower. And just for that, you can't join me!" Pyrrha said as she shut the door and locked it, before turning the shower on.

Ruby, for her part was still sitting on the floor in the hallway. "What the hell just happened?"


	20. Clear Skies Ahead

Pyrrha was beyond happy with how things have been going for her. Her relationship with Ruby was two months strong, and already it was fair to say that they were going to spend a long time with each other. While only a few people knew that the two of them were together, the people that mattered knew everything. Pyrrha wasn't keen on keeping this piece of information from her friends, not after she kept so much from them already for the longest time.

It had been almost a month since Pyrrha and everyone graduated from high school, and they were all ready to start college. Pyrrha and Ruby were both going to a college close to home, Weiss was traveling with Yang to a university out in a different part of the country along with Blake, and everyone else was scattering all over the country. While it was a bittersweet feeling, Pyrrha knew deep down that they weren't going to be split apart any time soon.

At that moment though, none of that was a concern to Pyrrha. She was grateful that her day was going to be spent with Ruby, Weiss and Yang over at the beach. About two days before, Pyrrha had mentioned that she never once went to swim in an ocean. Naturally, Ruby jumped at the opportunity to spend some quality time with her girlfriend, and show her the ocean for the first time. So after speaking with Yang about the adventure opportunity, their day was planned out. Weiss was, of course, dragged along by Yang, though she honestly would have come on her own without Yang goading her into it.

Pyrrha could tell that Ruby was excited for this trip as well, the younger girl looked like she was about to bounce around in her seat. It was always a great feeling when Pyrrha saw her girlfriend as excited as she was in that moment. Even better, their friends could tell that the two of them were happy with each other now that they were together.

Arriving at the beach, Pyrrha was immediately hit with the smell of the ocean air. Taking a deep breath, she was captivated by the scent that brushed across her skin. Pyrrha turned to see Yang and Weiss grabbing their bags from the trunk of the car, while Ruby was running around in circles enjoying the feeling of the sun shinning down overtop of them. Laughing, Pyrrha walked over to help Yang and Weiss with the bags.

"Pyrrha, we got this, just make sure my sister doesn't get into any trouble," Yang said before Pyrrha could fully make her way over. "She's already excited enough, don't need anything bad happening to her while we are here."

"Alright, if you say so," Pyrrha replied as she walked after Ruby, who was already making her way over to the beach.

Looking out across the sand, Pyrrha noticed that there wasn't too many people out there that day, and that Ruby had already found a good place for them to settle down at. Chasing after her girlfriend, Pyrrha reached Ruby right as she was starting to take her shirt off. They all had bathing suits underneath, since they didn't want to worry about having to change out in public.

Ruby had her back to Pyrrha, so she didn't know what exactly it was that she was doing to her girlfriend with her actions. ' _Oh my god, my girlfriend is stripping right in front of me…god…it's really getting hot in here isn't it?_ ' Pyrrha kept her thoughts to herself, but her face was broadcasting a different signal than her mouth. Her face was red from the blood rush that came with seeing her girlfriend in such a position. ' _Wow, Ruby's butt really looks great in that outfit-NO YOU STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING RIGHT NOW!_ '

Pyrrha nearly slapped herself in order to clear her mind of the images of Ruby's body in less than clean ways. By that point, Ruby had turned around and saw Pyrrha standing there. Weiss and Yang had showed up as well and were putting everything down.

"Wow, do you have sunburn already, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked. "Your face looks red."

"It's not that, trust me!" Pyrrha replied, though a bit quicker and more forcefully than were necessary.

Yang just snickered, noticing just what was going on as she walked over to the spot Ruby had picked out. As a result, Weiss smacked the blonde in the side, but it did nothing to deter the teasing that Yang was dishing out.

"Laugh it up blondie," Pyrrha grumbled as she helped Weiss set up the giant umbrella so that they could have some shade when not in the water. After that was set up, the rest of them got out of their normal clothes.

Ruby was already eager to get into the water, but Yang grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Not until you get sunscreen on," Yang declared. "I'm sure you're girlfriend would be happy to, lather you up." Yang put a sultry emphasis on the last part of that sentence, forcing Pyrrha to turn an even darker shade of red than she was at before.

Rolling her eyes at her sister, Ruby walked over to where Pyrrha was sitting and sat down in front of her. "Don't forget to rub everywhere you can," Ruby said, earning a glare from the blonde. "Yang wants me to make sure I'm covered, so make sure you get every place possible."

That had certainly got Yang to stop grinning quickly. "Ok, that's not what I meant by that," Yang replied.

"Well then don't make those assumptions in the first place," Ruby countered.

The entire time, Weiss noticed how Pyrrha had gotten redder and redder as she heard what Ruby and Yang were saying. Realistically, Pyrrha should have been used to it by that point, but it was different now that they were out in public together. Pyrrha however, was taking the time to actually rub sunscreen onto her girlfriend so that they didn't have to worry about her getting burnt.

Once they were done, Ruby told Pyrrha to flip over onto her back so that she could start putting sunscreen onto Pyrrha. As they were doing this, someone decided to walk over and talk to them. Pyrrha didn't notice him at first, and it wasn't until he spoke up did Pyrrha realize that something was going on.

"Hey gorgeous, you want me to help you with your sunscreen when you're done with your friend over here?" The guy said, instantly coming on to Ruby. That was strike one in Pyrrha's mind.

Pyrrha wasn't the type that would get jealous, but given how brazenly this guy just waltzed up to Ruby and tried to flirt with her, she didn't like it one bit. "I'm sorry, but I've already got my sunscreen on. Thanks for the offer though," Ruby said as she returned her attention to Pyrrha.

Seeing how she shot the guy down, Pyrrha was glad that her girlfriend knew not to trust the guy. "Oh no problems, but hey, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I joined you for the day. A lovely lady such as yourself shouldn't spend the day alone."

That was strike two. Pyrrha started to turn towards the guy and she gave him the dirtiest glare she could come up with. "But, I'm not alone, I got my friends and family here with me," Ruby replied, not really understanding what the guy was trying to do. "Besides, I don't even know you."

"Well then, why don't you and I get to know each other over a drink? I got a couple cans of beer with me that I'd be willing to share with you," the guy said.

Strike three.

Instantly, Pyrrha was standing up and directly in front of this guy who had dared try to step in and try to win her Ruby. "You need to get the fuck out of here right now!" Pyrrha practically shouted to the guy. She was pissed, and Ruby, Weiss and Yang could see that clearly. "Nobody invited you to even speak with us so do me a favor and leave before I kick your ass!"

"Damn bitch, what the fuck got shoved up your ass," the guy retorted. "I was just trying to show this lovely lady here a good time. If I knew that you wanted a piece of me instead, I would've spoken to you first."

"The only thing I want, is to see my foot kick you right in your sock stuffed speedo," Pyrrha countered.

As soon as she said that, Yang stood up. "OOOOOHHH! Damn you just got burned!" Yang jabbed, getting in between the guy and Pyrrha and mocking him to his face.

"Bitch get the fuck out of my face," The guy complained.

"Oh what, don't like it when someone else gets up in your shit?" Pyrrha countered. "Doesn't make you feel comfortable now does it, not that the shoe is on the other foot. What's even funnier, you're still standing in front of me. Now get out of here before I kick your pathetic, shriveled dick so hard, you choke on your own nut sack!"

With that, the guy left them shaking his head as if to say they weren't worth his time. Ruby was still confused as to what had just happened, but she knew Pyrrha would explain it to her later. Instead, Ruby waited for Pyrrha to lie back down so she could continue to rub sunscreen onto her girlfriend. As Pyrrha was laying there, Weiss couldn't help but comment on what had just happened.

"You know, I never pegged you as the jealous type, Pyrrha," Weiss mentioned.

Pyrrha just stayed there, silently ignoring Weiss' comment. Instead she paid more attention to Ruby's hands as they rubbed across her body and spread sunscreen all over her.

It didn't take much longer for them to finish applying sunscreen, and before long they were all running to the water. Weiss of course, was all but dragged by Yang. If it had been Weiss' decision, she would have just let them enjoy the water while she read a book at first. Instead, she was now in the water alongside Ruby, Yang and Pyrrha.

They all had fun soaking in the water and experiencing the waves around them. Pyrrha especially was having a fun time since it was her first trip to the ocean. Much like Ruby had promised her, she was certainly enjoying her time. She didn't know how much time had passed, but soon she heard Yang come up with an idea for a game that they could play.

"Wait, what?" Weiss proclaimed once she heard the idea. "You want me to climb up and sit on your shoulder, while Ruby sits on Pyrrha's shoulders, and see who can knock the other off first? Are you insane?"

"It'll be fun!" Yang said. "A game of chicken is exactly what we need right now!"

"I'm in," Ruby declared. "How about you Pyrrha?"

Hearing Ruby accept Yang's challenge was enough to convince Pyrrha that the game was a good idea, so she nodded in agreement and got into a position where Ruby could sit on her shoulders. Weiss, as much as she didn't want to do this, sat on Yang's shoulders and the two couples got ready to see who was the better pair.

As the two teams squared off, Pyrrha couldn't help but notice where Ruby was sitting, and what was rubbing up against her neck. While Ruby and Weiss battled to see who could knock the other over first, Pyrrha was staring off into her own little world. Her body was on auto-pilot as her brain thought about different things. ' _Wow, Ruby really is warm down there right now_ _,_ ' Pyrrha thought to herself as she carried Ruby.

It was when she started down that train of thought that Ruby and Pyrrha loss the game of chicken. Pyrrha inevitably lost balance and fell face first into the water with Ruby coming down above her. The suddenness of it all surprised her a bit and for a brief moment she was worried about drowning. It didn't help that Ruby was still on top of her and pushing her under the water as well.

Eventually Pyrrha managed to come up for air, coughing as she broke the surface. "You alright there, Pyrrha?" Yang asked while making her way over to her friend.

"Yeah, just surprised me is all," Pyrrha replied. Nearly drowning however, certainly helped to clear her head of the distractions. "So, now that I've gotten that out of the way, wanna go for best two outta three?"

* * *

Needless to say, Pyrrha and Ruby managed to make a comeback on Weiss and Yang. Once they won, Ruby and Pyrrha continued to enjoy the water for a little bit before they got out to do other things. They built sand castles, got a snack, all different kinds of things. Pyrrha read a book under the shade of the umbrella as Ruby laid down on a towel soaking up the rays, and they went back into the water again at another point in time.

After hours of fun on the beach, Ruby and Pyrrha were sitting together on the beach. The sun was starting to set and the two were mostly packed up and ready to go. Pyrrha had her towel wrapped around her waist while she only had her bikini top on over her chest. Ruby was wearing a tank top and shorts, with her towel draped over her neck.

As the sun was setting over the horizon in front of them, Pyrrha couldn't imagine spending this incredible moment with anyone else in the world. Ruby had become everything to her, the person who she put the greatest amount of trust and love in.

"This really is beautiful, isn't it?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, it really is," Pyrrha replied. Thinking back on where she was before she managed to start a relationship with Ruby, Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh. "You know, it's quite funny actually."

"What is?"

"A year ago, I was probably living through some of the worst times of my life," Pyrrha mentioned. Ruby knew just how bad it had been for Pyrrha, living through the abuse that she went through. "To think, within one year, a few months actually, I could go from being at my worst, to being the happiest woman alive. And it's all thanks to you, Ruby. You helped me through my worst times, and not only did you do that, but you changed my life for the better."

"Well, that's what friends are for, right?" Ruby replied.

"No it's more than that, Ruby," Pyrrha countered. "It goes further than just you being a friend. You were the one person that helped keep me afloat for a long time, kept me from drowning in depression, or anxiety, or something along those lines. Who knows what would have happened to me if you hadn't been there for me when I needed you the most."

"Well, you know that I care about you, Pyrrha," Ruby said.

Pyrrha moved herself right next to Ruby and wrapped her arm around Ruby's back. "I love you, Ruby."

Leaning in to kiss Pyrrha, Ruby caressed Pyrrha's cheek with her hand after ending the kiss. "I love you too, Pyrrha."

With Ruby's head resting against her shoulder, Pyrrha felt happy with how the day turned out. Staring out as the sun started to fully break over the horizon, Pyrrha knew that she was only going up from here. She made it through the worst of times, and there was nothing to stop her from living life the way she wanted to.

* * *

 **AN: Ok, if anyone else feels like that episode killed them, you are not the only one. This finale, while I have things that I want to say (I won't because I'm not a spoiler bitch), the one thing I am going to say first and foremost, is that I need a break from writing.**

 **So, for a couple of weeks, I'm going to be taking some time off to recover from this volume. Other than Room 205 (which is a collaboration), I will not be updating any of my own personal stories for the near foreseeable future. Story-wise, it was incredible, but my feels are hurting pretty badly now. Thus a huge reason why I needed to have this chapter. This is nice and fluffy because I am only doing fluff for this story from now on, and while that is what I feel I'm weakest at, it's the only thing that is left for this story.**

 **Anyway, if you want to be really awesome, the people that I am working with for Room 205 have started a podcast and our first episode is ready to go! Go onto PodBean and search for Legion205 to hear us talk about everything from RWBY FF, to RWBY itself, to a few D &D episodes for fun as well.**

 **Thank you for supporting me as I have been writing out this story. I hope you understand why I need to take a break from writing, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	21. Time Marches On

Pyrrha certainly had a lot on her mind during the course of the day. She was sitting in her University's dining hall, a lunch that she had brought from home in her hands, and Ruby's lunch across from her. Ruby was still in class, while Pyrrha was done with classes for the day. On that particular day though, Pyrrha was distracted, her mind in other places. To most people, it was just a normal friday, nothing out of the ordinary for her in any way shape or form, but to Pyrrha it was something else. There was a deeper meaning to this particular day than any others that she had gone through.

'Looks like it might rain later today, how fitting,' Pyrrha thought to herself as she waited for her girlfriend. It had been about 5 months since they first got together back at her senior prom, and every day was better than the rest in her mind. She got to spend so much time with Ruby, and every day their bond grew stronger. Pyrrha showed Ruby an unbreakable drive to strengthen their relationship, one that stood the test of time on many occasions.

"Hey Pyr," Ruby called out to Pyrrha once she arrived at the table Pyrrha occupied for the two of them.

Seeing Ruby show up helped Pyrrha focus on her girlfriend, and it definitely brought a smile to her face. "Hey there, Ruby," Pyrrha said as Ruby sat down. "How was classes?"

"Eh, pretty boring," Ruby said. "Though, for some reason, I had this one person running through at one point in the day like they were on a Red Bull rush. Someone else chased after them though, so most of us didn't do anything about it."

"Wait, really?" Pyrrha asked. Before she could get a response however, she was interrupted by the sounds of thunder coming loud and clear to her ears. "Yikes, sounds like the weather's going to get bad today."

"Yeah, that didn't sound too great," Ruby agreed. "You know, maybe we should consider taking our lunches to go."

"Honestly, I would say that it's probably best if we do that," Pyrrha said in response. "Somehow, I think this weather isn't going to let up any time soon. The sooner we get out of here and back home, the better."

With that in mind, the two of them gathered their belongings and made their way towards their car. It was actually Yang's old car, but since she was off at college with Weiss halfway across the country, the two of them only needed one car. So, they got Yang's old 67' Buick Wildcat, and while it looked old and worn, it drove well enough for their purposes. Pyrrha didn't mind actually, since it saved Ruby's family money, and they still managed to have a car available for them to use.

Unfortunately for Pyrrha and Ruby, it started to rain just as they reached their car, and they got just a little bit wet. Throwing their bags into the backseat, Ruby shook her head a bit, fortunate that there wasn't much water in her hair. She rested her hand on the seat in between herself and Pyrrha and sighed. "Barely made it."

"You can say that again," Pyrrha replied. "Come on, we should get going now, before it gets worse." Starting up the engine, Pyrrha pulled out of the parking spot and began the journey that would take them home.

* * *

They hadn't even gone ten minutes before the rain came down in torrential fashion. It was nigh impossible for Pyrrha to see through the rain that was coming down. Still, Pyrrha had to ensure that she and Ruby made it home, or at least to a place that was safe enough for them to stay for a little bit of time while the rain let up. Given how hard it was coming down though, Pyrrha had to figure that it wasn't going to be doing that any time soon.

"We need to get out of the rain before it kills us!" Ruby said to Pyrrha from the front seat of the car.

As Pyrrha was trying to keep an eye on the road, she noticed something that caught her eye. She recognized the all too familiar roads and houses of her own neighborhood, the place where she spent a majority of her life. With a split second decision, Pyrrha turned down the route it would take for her to get to her own home. It wouldn't be a long trip, they were close enough to her home that they could make it there without any problems.

Despite the confusion from Ruby, Pyrrha drives on and leads the two of them to her old home. Their timing was impeccable, because just as they pulled up, they noticed that Pyrrha's father had just gotten to the house himself.

"Is that your dad?" Ruby asked as Pyrrha pulled into the driveway behind him. The sounds of a car coming in caused Pyrrha's father to turn around in response, and he was confused to see someone else in his driveway. Still he reached the front door and began to unlock it when he heard a voice calling to him.

"Make way, dad!" Pyrrha shouted, having gotten out of the car. She was running with Ruby over to the door, and if it wasn't for some fast reflexes, Pyrrha's father wouldn't have gotten out of the way before being run over by his own daughter.

"Pyrrha?" Artemis questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"Rain's too bad to drive through, and I saw how close we were to here. So, I figured it would be best if we could crash here for the night until tomorrow. Hopefully by then the rain will be done."

Ruby seemed to jump in after Pyrrha and spoke to her father. "You don't mind that we're coming here unannounced, do you?"

Artemis just shook his head and removed his shoes and jacket. "I'm always happy to have my daughter and her girlfriend over, though if I remember correctly, this is the first time you're over here, right Ruby?"

"Yeah!" Ruby exclaimed. "Oh, I'll have to call my dad and let him know that we're over here. But first, can we get out of these wet clothes? I'm still soaked from the rain."

"I agree with Ruby," Pyrrha replied. "We're gonna head up to my room and get changed. After that, I'll give her a tour of the house." Pyrrha said, still in the kitchen.

"Don't get any funny business while you're up there," Artemis mentioned. "And if you do, just remember to keep quiet about it."

"Dad!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she started to walk up to her room.

As Pyrrha walked through the house, she noticed something odd resonating from within her. Something that came to a head as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She felt her body freeze, her mind forgetting about everything else that was around her. Ruby and Artemis wondered what was going on, confused as to why Pyrrha suddenly stopped moving.

Pyrrha felt a sharp pain along her left side, her arm, shoulder and ribs feeling as though they were on fire. Her mind played events that happened to her a long time ago, as if they were happening to her right then and there. The pain was just as intense, yet it wasn't actually there. It was just her body remembering what had happened, and the memory of that day coming down on Pyrrha like a ton of bricks.

Seeing Pyrrha clench her arm as if it were in pain, Ruby wrapped herself around her girlfriend from behind in an attempt to soothe her. Much to her relief, it seemed to be working, as Pyrrha started to relax and breathe normally again. Ruby listened to Pyrrha's heart steadily slow down, though she was unsure of what had caused it to reach that high of a pulse in the first place.

Eventually, Pyrrha took a deep breath and let go of her arm, the memories having faded from her mind. She felt Ruby's presence on her back, and patted the younger girl's arms to let her know that she was feeling better. At that, Ruby let go and Pyrrha spun around to see the concern etched across her girlfriend and father's faces.

"Pyrrha, what happened just there?" Ruby asked frantically. "Why did you just tense up and clutch your arm like it was in pain?"

Pyrrha just rubbed her eyes and shook her head, letting a few drops of water splash across Ruby and Artemis' faces. Taking another deep breath, Pyrrha felt now was a good time to explain what had happened. "Do you guys know what day it is?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked. Artemis however, had an idea of what Pyrrha meant.

"That's today?" He asked, only receiving a nod from Pyrrha in response. He didn't know what to do with himself. Should he try to give her a hug? What if she reacted badly to being touched by someone else today, in the house that she experienced all that pain.

"What's today?" Ruby asked, still clueless to what Pyrrha was talking about. "Pyrrha, what are you saying?"

Pyrrha just leaned against the railing of the stairs, looking down at her arm, making sure it wasn't actually hurt. "It was this day one year ago where I was hurt by my mother for the last time before I left home."

Ruby, instead of having the same hesitation that Artemis did, immediately wrapped Pyrrha up in a hug. As Artemis expected, Pyrrha noticeably tensed up at the contact, but what he didn't expect was for her to ease into the embrace, at least not as quickly as she actually did.

"You going to be ok, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked.

"I'll be fine," Pyrrha replied, removing herself from Ruby's grip. "Can we get out of these wet clothes? I should have a spare change for you." Pyrrha quickly walked up the stairs, putting the moment that just happened swiftly behind her. Ruby followed her up, keeping a close eye on her girlfriend to make sure that she was actually doing alright.

Once they reached Pyrrha's room, Ruby immediately switched from worried girlfriend, to awestruck and amazed at seeing her girlfriend's room for the first time. "Wow, this is where you grew up?"

Pyrrha chuckled, she was glad that Ruby was here to help her through the day. "Yeah, I grew up right in this room," She said to Ruby, who took such a huge interest in the environment. "Let's get you a change of clothes, I'm sure you don't want to spend any more time wearing those wet ones."

"That would be awesome," Ruby said as Pyrrha pulled out a pair of clothes for Ruby to wear. She grabbed something for herself and walked out of the room so that she could give Ruby some privacy while she was changing. Ruby didn't feel like it was too necessary, they had seen each other in underwear and practically naked before, it wasn't like that was a big deal to her.

Then Ruby remembered that was also before they were in a relationship with each other. Before everything changed for them. Ruby figured that Pyrrha was probably just respecting her privacy, or at least keeping her own hormones from running wild on an already emotional day for her.

Once she was done, she looked out the room to see Pyrrha walking back over, having changed in the other room. "Alright, I guess I owe you a tour of my house," Pyrrha said, though it seemed like it was a bit forced, according to Ruby.

"You don't have to right now if you don't feel up to it," Ruby replied. "I'm fine with waiting till another time."

"No," Pyrrha immediately replied. "I need to do this, for myself, and because it'd be irresponsible of me as your girlfriend to not give you a tour of my own home."

"If you say so," Ruby said, before following Pyrrha through the upper floors of her home.

The tour didn't take that long, and Pyrrha didn't really make a big deal out of it, but Ruby felt glad that Pyrrha was alright enough to show her where she grew up. Pyrrha's father cooked up some dinner for the three of them and they all enjoyed a meal while watching whatever was on TV. After they had finished, Ruby and Pyrrha were back up in Pyrrha's room. Somehow, Pyrrha had managed to acquire a beer from out of nowhere, making up some excuse that it was part of a secret stash that she kept from her father while he was still drinking. Now that he stopped, she felt it was fitting to open it up and keep it handy if she wanted something while she was home. Pyrrha didn't want to get her father in trouble, but right at that moment, she just needed something to help her mind take a step backwards.

She started to talk with Ruby about her past, about all the things that she went through while she was here, good and bad. No detail was left out, and Ruby really got a good look into what made Pyrrha the person she was today. She shared memories of when she was a child playing on her bed, before everything went to hell. She shared moments when Pyrrha locked herself into her room and waited for the sun to come up so that she could escape and experience the world once more. She even told Ruby of times when she snuck out of her home to go hang out with her and Yang, how she climbed through the window and used that as her escape route.

Eventually, Pyrrha was feeling a little buzzed. Not to a large extent, but just enough that she could start to feel the effects on her body. She felt like she could be tipped over with ease, though she was thinking coherently enough that she could process much of anything without problems.

As the day went on, Pyrrha and Ruby eventually found themselves laying on Pyrrha's bed together, Pyrrha snaking her arms around Ruby and bringing her as close as humanly possible. Pyrrha brought the younger girl's lips to her own and let the touch fuel her, a bliss that she never felt any other way. As time went on, their kisses became fiercer, their bodies moving with the pace that they were reaching. They were experiencing passions like no other.

Until Ruby's hand grazed across Pyrrha's shoulder.

At that, Pyrrha snapped back, her mind panicking as it recalled exactly what had happened to her a year ago. Without hesitation, Ruby moved towards Pyrrha, just enough so that her girlfriend could have some space to breathe and relax.

"It's ok, I'm here," Ruby cooed to Pyrrha, helping to soothe her vivid mind.

"I'm sorry, Ruby," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry that I screwed up." Pyrrha took a couple of deep breathes to recompose herself, to allow her mind to remember just who was laying with her on the bed.

"Don't be sorry," Ruby mentioned. "I know how hard this is for you." Ruby let her arm graze Pyrrha's shoulder, the one that wasn't hurt all that time ago. Eventually, Pyrrha relaxed enough and wrapped herself around Ruby.

"I wasn't making you uncomfortable with what I was doing, right?" Pyrrha asked, unsure if she was doing the right thing or not. "If I was please let me know and I'll stop."

"Don't worry about it, Pyrrha," Ruby reassured. "I honestly didn't have a problem with it. But I'm wondering what brought this all on?"

Pyrrha felt her face go red with embarrassment. It wasn't the first time the two of them had talked about sex, but that was when they were still young into the relationship and neither of them were really ready for it. Pyrrha was more ready than Ruby was at the time, but she also respected her girlfriend enough to be patient while their relationship grew. "Well, I've been ready for quite a while now, but I was waiting until you were ready. We don't have to go on if you don't want to, but I guess what brought it on right now was just how much of a crazy day this has been, my emotions are running pretty high right now."

"I can understand what you mean," Ruby mentioned. "But, I don't feel like we need to stop either."

That was a surprise to Pyrrha, who almost did a double take after hearing her girlfriend give the response that she did. "You really want to go on with this? You feel as though you're ready for this to happen?"

Ruby sat up and climbed on top of Pyrrha, straddling her girlfriend's waist and hovering just above her lips with her own. "Yes."

* * *

By the time morning came, Pyrrha felt exhausted. A dull throbbing headache plagued her, though she remembered exactly what the reason for that was. What she didn't expect, was to see Ruby in her bed, and the two of them both naked underneath the covers. She thought back on what they did and remembered that the two of them did exactly what Pyrrha was believing happened. She also remembered that Ruby said that she was ready for it, which prompted Pyrrha to go through with it in the first place.

"Morning, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha was a little startled when she saw her dad peeking in through the doorway, his eyes covered despite her blanket covering most of her body. "Uh, morning, dad…this er…it's…"

"Don't worry about it," Artemis said. "I figured you two would have already done that, so it's no surprise to me. I just wanted to let you know that I'm making breakfast, so the two of you should get out of bed soon." With that, Artemis left his daughter and her sleeping girlfriend to their own devices

Looking down at her girlfriend, Pyrrha didn't know whether she should wake her up to get breakfast, or let the girl sleep a bit more and join her for a few more minutes. Deciding to go with the latter, Pyrrha tried her best to flip Ruby over so that she was facing her, and wrapped her up in her arms.

'One year ago, my life changed forever,' She thought to herself as she held her girlfriend in her arms. 'Honestly, I'm glad things turned out the way they did. It's gotten me to have the single greatest girlfriend I could ever imagine, and that's worth anything the world can throw at me.' Laying there for a few more minutes, Pyrrha just listened to the sounds of her girlfriends breathing, letting it soothe her for just a little bit longer.

* * *

 **AN: Man. I haven't gotten to write for this in quite a while, huh. I'm really glad that I get to enjoy this story again. Even if it's close to the end, it's nice to see all of the hard work I accomplished with this story paid off.**

 **That being said, the rest of the story is going to be a series of one shots, both connected and not connected to each other. So hopefully you get to enjoy those as they come out.**

 **Thanks for tuning in, and I'll be back with more later.**


	22. In Sickness and in Health

' _I can't believe that I'm sick right now_ ,' Pyrrha thought to herself as she sat down on the couch in the Xiao Long living room. The night before, Ruby decided that the two of them should go out and play in the rain together. As much as Pyrrha thought it was a bad idea, she wasn't about to go and let her girlfriend feel sad because of it. So, begrudgingly she went out with Ruby into the rain.

Pyrrha had to admit that she had fun while they were out there. The two of them danced under the rain, they kissed, raced each other, went jumping through puddles, all kinds of fun stuff you could do. Despite that though, Pyrrha knew just how bad things could get from being out there, and now she was paying the price for it.

When Pyrrha woke up that morning, she struggled to get out of her bed. Her body was failing to cooperate with her, and so she felt like sitting up was impossible. It took all of her willpower just to stand up and drag herself up the stairs and into the living room. Once she got up there, Ruby's father noticed her disheveled appearance and checked to see if she was feeling alright. Immediately, Taiyang kicked into father mode when he felt the redhead's forehead, noticing there was a very definite warmth generating from it. After a few minutes of checking, Taiyang told Pyrrha that she had a definite fever.

No sooner than that, he called the doctor to schedule an appointment for later that day. After Ruby woke up, Taiyang explained everything that was going on, and Ruby went over to Pyrrha to give her a hug. Despite Taiyang's encouragement that she keep from spending too much time right next to Pyrrha, Ruby gave Pyrrha a hug and started apologizing like crazy. Once they were done with the trip to the doctors, Ruby was practically waiting on Pyrrha's hand and foot.

"I'm really sorry about this, Pyr," Ruby said as she brought a bowl of soup out for Pyrrha to drink. "I didn't realize what you meant when you said it was a bad idea."

Truth be told, Pyrrha really couldn't be mad at Ruby over this, she only had herself to blame after all. "It's fine," Pyrrha hoarsely replied. "Don't beat yourself up over this, hun. It's not like I tried hard to stop us from going out in the rain and getting myself sick."

"Well, regardless, I don't plan on letting my girlfriend go around being sick, while I just sit around and do nothing about it!" Ruby proclaimed. "Now, I hope you enjoy your soup, I'm going to get some movies together so that we can watch them."

"Ruby wait," Pyrrha said, though her claims fell on deaf ears as Ruby had already made her way out of the living room. "Dammit."

Taking Ruby's advice, Pyrrha looked down at the bowl of soup sitting on the table in front of her. She had a blanket wrapped around her to keep her comfortable, so she had to maneuver herself out of the cocoon that she had contained herself in and reached down to the bowl of soup. Her arms were shaking a bit, but she had enough strength still in her body to take the bowl and feed herself a few spoonfuls of the concoction that Ruby crafted to heal her.

Pyrrha had to admit, the soup was pretty good. The soup itself helped warm up her body from the inside out as it traveled down the internal pipes into her stomach. Just after one spoonful, she could already feel herself getting stronger, even if it was only a temporary thing. Still, she started to indulge herself further on the soup, savoring the warmth that it helped to generate within her chest. Though there was another warmth within her chest that would never seem to die, the warmth that Ruby generated within her heart.

' _I can't believe we've been together for a year and a half already_ ,' Pyrrha thought to herself. She looked outside and saw that it was still raining out, fully expecting it to snow sometime in the evening. The fact that it hadn't yet was a surprise, but Pyrrha wasn't about to complain.

Soon afterwards, Ruby returned to the living room with a box of movies in her hands. "Alright, today, we're doing a movie marathon!" Ruby declared. "You and I are spending the day inside and just watching movies all day since it's terrible outside and you've got a pretty nasty cold."

"No thanks to you," Pyrrha replied sarcastically. "I'm kidding of course, but this cold is making me feel a little bit grumpy right now."

"Understandable, now scoot over and let me in next to you," Ruby said as she brought over the movies and set them down on the table. "Alright, take your pick!"

Pyrrha grumbled as she leaned forward and picked a movie out from the box. It wasn't the movie that was going to capture her attention, rather, she wanted to just sit on the couch, cuddle up with her girlfriend, and fall asleep right there. Her hope was that the movie would give her a chance to do just that.

As the movie went on, Pyrrha felt ruby get closer and closer to her, though Pyrrha really didn't mind. Part of her knew that if she were to do this, Ruby would just end up getting sick herself, and she really didn't want to do that to the poor girl. Ruby needed to stay healthy, else Taiyang have two sick children that needed to be cared for. It may have been winter break, but Pyrrha wasn't willing to deal with having to take care of Ruby, while she herself was still sick.

"Ruby, you sure that you want to snuggle up to me?" Pyrrha asked, more as a way to ensure that Ruby was alright with this, than try to push her away. "I don't want to be the reason that you get sick."

"Pyrrha," Ruby said, standing up just long enough to maneuver her way underneath Pyrrha's blanket. "If I wanted to avoid getting sick, then I wouldn't be watching a movie with you in general. Now shut up and snuggle me."

"Well, when you put it that way," Pyrrha commented, before wrapping her arms around Ruby and pulling her closer. Ruby rested her head on top of Pyrrha's chest, listening to the taller girls heartbeats. After a few minutes, Pyrrha had decided to give up on snuggling and instead she lifted Ruby's chin up enough so that the two could kiss each other. As they started to kiss, it grew more intense, and soon, Pyrrha felt a hand slide up her shirt. "Um, Ruby?"

"Yeah?" Ruby asked, seduction in her voice.

"Do you think we should take this to a more, private, setting?" Pyrrha asked.

Ruby looked down and saw the form of her hand underneath Pyrrha's shirt, resting directly onto her chest, and her face went as red as Pyrrha's hair. "Um, yeah, I think we should."

"Then help me up," Pyrrha said, pushing Ruby off of her gently. Once Ruby was standing, she turned off the tv and helped Pyrrha down into the basement and into her girlfriend's room.

* * *

By the time Pyrrha woke up in the morning, she realized that she felt much better. Having Ruby with her had certainly been a huge boost to her morale, and she had enjoyed it immensely. As she walked up to the living room, only to find Mr. Xiao Long rubbing his forehead from the kitchen.

"I hope you're feeling better," Taiyang said.

"Not completely, but I definitely feel better," Pyrrha replied.

"Good," He said. "Because now Ruby is sick and I need you to take care of her. Hope you don't mind."

"To be honest, I'm not surprised by this," Pyrrha admitted. "It's nothing that I didn't expect to be honest."

"Alright, well she's in her room right now so hope you enjoy," Mr. Xiao Long said. "I gotta go to work, don't get too rambunctious while I'm gone."

That sparked a burst of red that enveloped Pyrrha's face. Immediately she walked over to Ruby's room to check on her. Once she walked in, she saw a lump of mass that was her girlfriend underneath the covers. "Hello," Pyrrha said softly as she walked up to the bed.

"Ugh, I hate being sick," Ruby complained.

"I did tell you that you would get sick," Pyrrha reminded. "You only have yourself to blame."

"Ugh, worth it." It was all that Ruby could say, she rolled over and made enough space for Pyrrha to slip in without any problems. Pyrrha took up the opportunity and climbed into the bed with Ruby, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and letting the younger woman rest her head upon her chest.

"Yeah, I'd say this is worth it," Pyrrha said as she felt herself slip back into sleep.

* * *

 **AN: I know this is really short, but I literally finished it not 2 minutes before I posted it. Would've had more time to work on it, but I was streaming for about 9 1/2 hours today so that wasn't really much of an option.**

 **I decided that I'm just going to do one-shots for this and keep the story going for as long as I feel that I can. So, you now get this story for even longer than I had anticipated.**

 **Anyway, shout out to my friend Jefardi, who's birthday was "yesterday" (it's past midnight here so that's why I say it), and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of The Other Side as a kinda belated birthday present to you, the king of Victory Rose/Milk and Cereal/Pyrruby, whatever you the readers refer to it as.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and if I'm going to be doing one shots with this story, the length of them may continue to be around this amount, though I'll try not to have it be that way.**

 **Have a good evening/day/afternoon/morning/whatever the fuck time it is for you guys!**


	23. A Lack of Discretion

Ruby was nervous for what she was planning on doing. She was taking Pyrrha out on a date, but it wasn't just any normal date between the two of them. Ruby had a plan to do something that, given the current standing between her and Pyrrha, was something she had thought about for a little bit of time.

Her biggest concern, was how Pyrrha would take to the idea in the first place.

Ruby figured that if she buttered her girlfriend up with a nice fancy dinner beforehand, that it would help smooth things along. It did help that the movie that she was planning on the two of them were going to see was a movie that was expected to be all but dead.

That's what Ruby was hoping for, at least.

If things didn't turn out that way, at least the movie she picked out wasn't going to suck. Pyrrha would enjoy it, and it would just be a normal date like usual. But Ruby was hoping that wouldn't be the case.

"You ready to go?" Ruby asked Pyrrha, knocking on the door to her room and waiting for a response outside.

"Give me a minute," Pyrrha replied from the other side of the door. "I'm still getting dressed."

"It's not like I haven't seen you naked before," Ruby replied, albeit a bit more quietly than before.

"Yeah, no duh," Ruby heard Pyrrha say. "You've seen me naked even before we were together."

"Nothing wrong with that thought," Ruby mumbled to herself. Before she could do anything else, Pyrrha opened up the door and faced Ruby. The shorter girl had to admit that while Pyrrha always looked pretty good, she could knock anyone off their feet when she really wanted to. In this case, the loose white shirt over her tank top looked stunning, but the flowing red dress that stopped just short of her knees was what sold it for Ruby that evening.

"So, where are you taking me?" Pyrrha asked, though Ruby didn't hear a word she said. When all that Pyrrha was met with was silence and a red faced Ruby, she continued onward. "Hey, hun, my eyes are up here."

"Bwha-" Ruby jumped, surprised by Pyrrha's suddenness. "I'm sorry, I just got er, distracted."

"I can tell," Pyrrha giggled. "Anyway, you ready to go?" Pyrrha wasn't expecting Ruby to grab her by the wrist and pulled her towards the garage.

"Yeah, let's get going!" Ruby replied as she dragged Pyrrha up to the car.

* * *

Pyrrha had to admit, this date with Ruby had gone pretty well for the most part. She always imagined that Ruby was capable of pulling some amazing feats, and now her girlfriend was showing just how right those thoughts were.

Ruby had brought the two of them out to a restaurant that they could enjoy, before bringing her over to the movies. What surprised Pyrrha the most was Ruby's choice in movie. She had brought her over to a movie that had been in theaters for so long that no one was going to see it anymore. As the two of them waited for the movie to start, Pyrrha had to wonder what was going on.

"Ruby," Pyrrha said.

"Yes?" Ruby asked in response.

"Why is it that we're at a movie where we're the only two people in the theater?" Pyrrha asked. "And for what reason did you decide to have the us sit right in the very back row of the theater when we could literally have any seat imaginable?"

"Well, I think this would be a good opportunity to relax without anyone around to snoop in on our time together," Ruby replied, a sly grin crossing her face.

"Oh dear god," Pyrrha sighed. "I'm gonna have to smack you at some point, aren't I?"

"I don't think you'll want to do anything of the sort," Ruby said. "Now come on, let's 'enjoy the movie'."

"I'm sure we will," Pyrrha said. She felt Ruby lean into her and snuggle up against her side. As the previews ran and the theater started to darken, she felt Ruby pull her face towards her own. Pyrrha felt her lips connect with Ruby's, the sensation driving Pyrrha into a feeling of nirvana. While the kissing was going on, Pyrrha felt Ruby's hands rub all over her body.

The suddenness of sound coming from the speakers startled Pyrrha just a little bit. She turned to see some of the opening cinematics pop onto the screen, before turning towards Ruby. She was starting to figure out what it was that Ruby had planned all along. "Really? Here of all places?"

"I don't hear you saying no," Ruby responded, her tone having completely changed. "We're the only two in the theater right now, and you have no idea how amazing you look right now."

Pyrrha was in an internal war with herself. She could either stop this right now, albeit to a little bit of disappointment from Ruby, or she could let this happen. It would be a risk, but she was sure that things would go well if something came up. Realistically, she didn't even give it too much thought, instead letting her actions do the talking instead as she threw her hands up to Ruby's face and gave into her desires.

* * *

"You do know that we're late for the movie, right?" Weiss groaned to Yang as they walked into the movie theater.

"Don't worry, we've seen this movie already," Yang replied. "Besides why do you want to see this again?"

"Mostly because it's an excuse to spend time with you," Weiss rebuked. "I'm sure you're happy that I actually get the chance to do so."

"True," Yang admitted. "At least we actually get a weekend to be home for once as well."

As the two of them walked into the theater, they first noticed how it was completely empty. At least that's what they thought. Once the two sat down in the middle of the theater, they started to hear some weird noises coming from the back of the theater.

"Is that what I think it is?" Weiss complained.

"Sure sounds like it," Yang said, doing her best to ignore it as much as possible.

"You're just going to let that happen?"

"Why ruin our night, as well as someone else's night, by getting into an argument with them?" Yang said. "It's not worth it to get involved in other people's business."

As much as Weiss wanted to go up there, she saw what Yang was saying and decided to just enjoy the movie. "Fine, but when we get back to your house, I get to have fun with you."

"Not gonna argue with that," Yang said as she wrapped her arm around Weiss and continued to watch the movie.

* * *

The next morning, Pyrrha walked up into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. She was surprised to see Yang and Weiss sitting there at the dining room table, but it only gave her a reason to visit with them. "Hey, didn't realize you two were home."

"Yeah," Yang replied, standing up to give Pyrrha a hug. "We got back last night after catching a movie together."

"Oh really?" Pyrrha asked. "What movie did you see?"

"We went to go see Temple of the Shade," Weiss replied.

As soon as she said that, Pyrrha all but froze. That was the exact movie that Ruby took her to see last night, when they had their fun in the theater.

"Yeah, we would've been the only two in the theater too, but there was this couple in the back who were going at it," Yang continued. She pointed over to Weiss before continuing. "She wanted to go up and give them a piece of her mind if I didn't stop her."

"Well it was hard to pay attention to the movie, the two of them were going at it throughout the entire movie!" Weiss argued back. Neither of the two sitting with Pyrrha noticed just how red her face had just gotten. "Seriously, how can someone even have the stamina to go at it for almost 3 straight hours?"

"What's going on?"

Yang and Weiss turned towards Ruby, who happened to walk into the dining room with the pair. "Weiss and I went to watch Temple of the Shade yesterday-"

Before Yang could go on, Ruby interrupted her. "Really? Pyrrha and I went to go see that as well!"

Weiss, who was taking a sip of her drink, took that moment to create a geyser from her mouth as the contents went all over the table. Yang just sat there, her expression blank, and Pyrrha immediately got up and walked down to her room to hide her embarrassment.

"Was it something I said?" Ruby asked, wondering what the hell just happened.

* * *

 **AN: Well, short little thing that I hope you enjoy. I don't know how often I'll post stuff, but hey, it's been a while and I wanted to post something for you guys!**

 **Thanks for reading.**


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